The Long Way Around
by carguysteve549
Summary: The story is a sequel to my previous story, Four Months. Three months have passed since Ty left Amy in Europe. Now everyone is back in Hudson, dealing with new lifestyles, jobs, and love interests, and a need to figure out what is most important to them. They must discover for themselves if achieving all of their goals in a professional life is worth losing the love of their lives.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Georgina Crawley was riding shotgun with her right hand twisting and gliding through the air outside the rolled down window in her aunt Amy's new Dodge Ram 4x4 truck. Georgie, as she preferred to be called, a thirteen year old pistol of a kid, feared little of anything as far as her new family of two and a half years could tell. Her adoptive great grandpa, Jack Bartlett, once said that he figured she would walk up to the Devil himself and kick him in the shin, if he dared to cross her. She had constantly been chattering about this much anticipated weekend of trail riding with Amy at Jack's fishing cabin for months while waiting for her aunt to finally get back home from France. Not much was being said in front of her regarding Amy's long absence from her lifelong home in the foothills to the Canadian Rockies at Heartland Ranch, but she was sharp enough to know that Amy's fiancé, Ty Borden, came home many weeks before her and that Lou, her adoptive mother and Amy's older sister, cried for days because something had gone terribly wrong on their working trip to Europe.

Amy Fleming was now considered a world class horse trainer. She made the most of a job offer by a young Prince from the UAE by leading his previously troubled World Championship show jumpers through a respectable four month long season while travelling all across Europe, which also included a stay in Abu Dhabi for a show put on for the Prince's benefit. The adventure was the opportunity of a lifetime for the rural Alberta born ranchers' daughter and it paid off with many high end business connections with the best breeders in the world. It also cost her the fiancé she had been planning to marry, in addition to him being the best friend she had ever known.

After the world jumping championship tour was finished, she accepted another job offer which would have taken her away from home for months at a time, without even thinking to ask Ty how he felt about it. He eventually told her that he could not live a life wishing for his wife to come back home and there obviously would not be room in her life for the farm they had wanted to buy, the business they wanted to start together, or for kids. Ty broke her heart when he told her his plan to go back to Alberta to start over without her. He made sure that her grandpa and Lisa were there to look after her and take her to Lisa's villa outside of Paris after he was gone. Lisa spent the next ten weeks showing her new step-granddaughter the ins and outs of taking over her high end horse trading business she was planning to soon retire from. It was more likely an extended healing mission designed to help the jilted fiancée to recover from the huge disappointment of her breakup.

"Looks like you are enjoying yourself," Amy said to her passenger.

"This is soooo cool, I _looove _your new truck!" she replied.

"Me too! It's about time I got my own wheels. Grandpa's old Chevy is getting a little too worn out for us to go on these longer trips like this. Now we can ride in style and not worry about being able to get back home without having to be towed, since we don't have anybody to keep it….," she faded at the stinging thought of the one who used to take care of things like that.

"Yeah, I know, _to keep it running_," the young girl caught on to the accidental reference to Ty.

The driver tried to keep the moment from going flat, "This is goanna be _great_, Georgie! Just us girls and our horses with nobody else around to bother us. I soooo need this right now!"

"Meee tooo!" Georgie smiled at the idea.

* * *

A shiny new horse trailer carrying an injured thoroughbred backed up to the door at the rear of the Hudson Veterinary clinic. The owner, a wealthy Alberta business man who struck it rich in the natural gas industry, had high hopes for Scott Cardinal, the clinic's owner and surgeon who was experienced with equine leg trauma, to find a way to save the prized animal.

"Dr. Cardinal, I sure hope you can do something for him. It just makes me sick to think of him hurting like this," said the man.

"We will do everything we can to help him, Mr. Carson. I can't promise you anything, but if there is anything to work with when we get in there to see the bone, that it isn't shattered into fragments too small to repair, we should be able to at least get him back on his feet to live a long happy life making babies at your ranch."

"Yeah…Ok, Doctor, but I sure do wish that new clinic down in Okotoks was up and running. I hear they are going to have the best of everything there to work with," he speculated.

Scott hesitantly replied, "Yes, that's what I hear. I guess we will have to wait and see."

Ty walked out of the clinic with Cassandra, Scott's feisty assistant, to get Aladdin out of his trailer and into his new stall to prep him for surgery the following day.

"As a matter of fact," Scott pointed Ty out to the man, "my colleague here is working with the people who are building the clinic. He has been to the UAE to see the original clinic and many of their techniques. We hope to be able to collaborate with them very closely, once they are up and running."

"That's great news, Doctor, I just wish we had their help right now," Mr. Carson worried.

"Mr. Carson, I assure you that Aladdin is in the best of hands right where he is," said Ty. "I have personally assisted Dr. Cardinal in many surgeries just like the one we will do tomorrow, and if your horse has any bone left to work with, he will make the repair as well as anyone."

"I sure hope you are right, son," said the owner as he turned toward his truck.

"I've been getting that a lot, lately," Scott later confessed to his protégé. "My clients are eagerly awaiting the _new technological marvel of equine medicine_ to open.

"Don't worry about it, Scott, I am sure that we can find a way to make everything work out, by working together somehow," Ty assured him.

Scott had been waiting for the subject of Amy's returning to Hudson a few weeks ago to come up, but so far her former fiancé had not offered so much as a peep acknowledging the event. "I guess you heard that Amy is back in town?"

"Yeah, that's what I hear, Scott," the younger man dismissed the comment.

"Ahhhhh, what are you going to do when you run into her?" Cassandra pried. "That's goanna be soooo awkward!"

"I plan to do nothing, except to say hello, if I have to."

"That's kind of cold, isn't it?" the girl continued to aggravate the sensitive situation.

"What am I supposed to say, Cass? It isn't like I can ever say anything I haven't already said, or that I can somehow fix our friendship. I would guess that we would both rather just stay clear of each other the best we can," he assumed.

"I suppose that would be the most convenient for you two, but life has a way of screwing with you…..it's like a rule," reasoned the assistant and sometimes self-proclaimed philosophical advisor.

"A rule?" he asked.

"Yeah, you know, just when you think everything is going OK…._WHAM_, everything goes to hell before you know it!"

"Well, Cass, that's a great view of life from an optimist such as yourself, and I think that is a reference to Murphy's Law," he informed his co-worker.

"Murphy-schmurphy, I'm just saying," defending her analysis.

* * *

Lou Fleming-Morris, the eldest sister of the Bartlett-Fleming-Morris clan whose ancestors had settled Heartland Ranch one-hundred fifty years ago, bent down to retrieve a fresh batch of cookies from the oven with her four year old daughter, Katie, eagerly watching from the small breakfast table in the center of the room. "Look, Katie, don't these cookies smell good?" Katie threw a fit when Georgie left with Amy, thinking she was big enough to go on the girls' only trip with the horses, and Lou figured that a batch of her favorite chocolate chip oatmeal cookies would make her world here at the ranch a happy place to be, for a while, anyways.

Jack walked through the front door of the house and said, "Boy, Katie, those cookies sure do smell good! How about you and me get a glass of milk and see if we can test them for your momma, just so we know that it is OK for the rest of the family to eat them?"

Katie grabbed the cookie closest to her from the plate, and after inspecting it to see that it was indeed perfect, she offered it to her great grandpa for him to eat.

"Did Amy and Georgie get started on that camping trip?" he asked Lou.

"Yeah, they're on their way. That is why we had to bake cookies, because this one wanted to go too!" she replied.

"Oh, I see. Well then, Katie, maybe you can ride with me into town and help me pick up some supplies at the Maggie's, what do you think?" he said as he winked at the girl.

She enthusiastically nodded her approval and stuffed a whole cookie into her mouth, having to comically figure out how to chew such a big bite, and causing the two adults to crack up at the sight.

* * *

After Aladdin was stabled and ready for his night of rest, Ty picked up his keys to the old Norton motorcycle he had ridden to work that morning for the first time in a long while and announced that he was headed out to his new apartment for the evening. Riding down city streets was far less appealing to him than the back roads he normally rode while living at Heartland, but this was his new life and he hoped he would soon get over missing the old place so much.

He rode southwest until he was approaching the open country of the foothills. He was headed to the ranch that belonged to the professor from the University of Calgary who was in charge of the high tech North American clinic being built in Okotoks. Dr. Hartman offered his guest house to Ty as his home base until he eventually found a place of his own. Only half focused on the task at hand, his thoughts wandered to the days he and Amy spent riding toward the mountains from this spot as he pulled up to the last stop light before he turned south on the old Cowboy Trail toward his destination. He was drained of energy more than he thought he should be, but he hoped a hot shower and a couple of beers would fix anything that was ailing him after he tended to the animals and relaxed a while before turning in for another of a long string of restless nights.

* * *

Georgie reached over to push the buttons on the stereo which was playing Amy's favorite country tunes.

"Georgie, stop it! I was listening to that song!" Amy complained.

"Com'on, Amy, that song is old….we need to find something better," said the fidgety teenager.

"OK, well, just don't wear my buttons out so soon. They are goanna have to last a lot of years!"

They were the first in line to turn left from the stoplight toward the road leading into the mountains when an unusual sound approached from their right. Amy was no stranger to the hum of a vintage motorcycle. She had ridden with Ty on the back of his old Norton all over these foothills and into the mountains, and the sound was eerily familiar to her. Georgie saw him first, and when she realized that she was looking at her long lost friend across the intersection her mouth dropped into an _Oh_ shape as she looked toward Amy to see if she had noticed as well. When his light changed Ty swung around the intersection directly in front of them and Georgie unbuckled her seatbelt and stuck her entire torso through the window opening to try and get his attention.

"Georgie! Get back in here!" she yelled.

"Don't you want him to see us?" the confused girl asked.

"_NO_, I don't! Now, buckle up, before I strap you down myself!"

The next hour into the mountains was much more subdued between the two female travel companions.

"Amy, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you mad." Georgie said apologetically. "I just know that you have been really sad, and maybe if you talked to Ty, you would feel better," she explained.

"It doesn't work like that, Georgie. Ty and I don't have anything to talk about anymore. Those days are over."


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Getting Spartan and Phoenix out of the trailer and secured in the old shed for the night took up the first half hour of their weekend retreat. The air was crisp at the end of the day when Amy and her niece arrived at the rustic little cabin at her Grandpa Jack's hideaway in the mountains. The sun would be setting soon and both of the girls wanted to fix something to eat before dark. Amy sent her hyper young companion to gather some more wood for the fire and make sure the outhouse was ready to use in order to work off some of her excess energy, and because she needed a break from the unceasing chatter. She carried the cooler from the truck to the front porch and took out some fresh hot dogs they had just gotten on the way up the mountain. After she was alone for the first time since seeing Ty back at the stoplight in Priddis, Amy fought to keep her mind from drifting away to the fondest memories she had kept of the two of them here at the cabin. The tried to resist the urge to glance to her left, for just a second, to see the spot where she first told him that she loved him, but when she gave in, the picture she saw in her mind of that day made her eyes start to glisten in the new fire's light.

"Is this OK?" the eager girl asked of the arm full of sticks she was carrying.

"That's fine, Georgie. Put them over there and get ready to eat. You are roughing it now, so you have to take the bucket inside the cabin and go to the river and bring us some fresh water, and why don't you go to the truck for that other sack we got at the store, there should be a bag of marshmallows in it. _This is goanna be great_!"

* * *

The new building in Okotoks was in the final stages of completion and Dr. Hartman had requested for Ty to come Saturday morning for a walk through of the large facility with him and some of the other doctors who had already been put on staff. He arrived at seven a.m. sharp riding the old Norton and pulled into the front row of parking spots near the main entrance among a variety of Mercedes, BMW's, Cadillac's, and one freshly detailed bright red 1957 Corvette. He was hanging his helmet by its strap onto the handle bars when a voice came from out of nowhere directly behind him and declared, "Ohhh, It's a _Norton_! How cool is that?" Ty whirled around, taken aback to see a pair of gorgeous hazel-green eyes smiling between him and his bike. The elegant, yet down to earth young woman seemed amused by his reaction and laughed when she offered her hand and introduced herself as Dr. Allison Williams, "My friends call me Ally," she told him.

"Oh, hi, Ally….uhhh, can I call you that yet?" he shyly stumbled, a bit tongue tied by such a beautiful surprise right there in front of him. "I'm Ty….Borden."

"Well, _Ty Borden, _I have heard some very nice things about you, and any man that rides a cool bike like that one…. I think I can say in advance that it will be OK if you call me Ally," she teased.

"Let me guess…That one has to be yours?" he said, pointing to the classic Corvette next to his bike.

"You got it! I have dreamed about getting one of those since my dad got a pink '57 'Vette for my Barbie when I was six years old. I just got it last week!"

"I am happy to see that you stuck with your dream for all of those years. And, I'm glad that you chose a red one, and not pink," he scrunched his face into a mock frown at the thought. "That is one sweet car! It looks just like the real thing, only it has to be more practical to drive with all of the modern running gear under it," Ty noticed.

"So, you are the first one who knows it is a brand new manufactured car, with all new parts? You really _are_ a gear-head, aren't you?" said his impressed new friend.

"Well, I have a _real_ '57 of my own, a GMC truck that was my first set of wheels," he teased with his trademark 'gotcha' grin, "And, are you always this wound up and ready to go at this hour of the morning?" he wondered.

"Yup! I pretty much hit the ground running, and today is such a pretty day! Do you suppose, if you haven't changed your mind about us being friends after we are finished here today, that a girl could get a ride on the back of that Norton?"

"Not a problem!" he assured her.

* * *

"Lisa! Have you seen my keys? How am I supposed to get into town without my keys? He whined to his amused wife.

"Well, I don't know, Jack, why don't you ask your great granddaughter? She has been impatiently waiting for you by the front door for five minutes now with your keys in her hand so you can take her to Maggie's like you promised," she laughed at her perplexed husband as he immediately transitioned from being gruff into a bowl of jello at the sight of the restless little girl standing there waiting. Then she asked, "Is it OK if I come along, Katie?" The little girl came to her to reach up and grab her hand, "Yeahhh….Com'on, Grandpa! Let's _go_!"

The three of them waved to Scott on the way out of the driveway as he pulled his fully equipped veterinarian truck to a stop in front of the old faded red barn. Lou had called to ask if he would come by to check on the horses and see about some of the annual maintenance for them since Amy and Georgie were away at the fishing cabin for the weekend. She walked out of her office door to meet him and helped to carry a cardboard box of worming medicine into the barn, placing it on a table beside the feed cans.

"How is Amy?" he asked. "Is the w_orld traveler_ getting settled in OK now that she is back here at the ranch, or has Lisa got her living out at Fairfield?"

"No, she is staying here with us, for now. I think she needs to be here with her family." Lou replied.

"You know, Lou, I hated to hear about Amy and Ty. I was really hoping they would make it work together," he told his childhood sweetheart.

"Yeah, their breaking up affected _all_ of us here at the ranch. Ty couldn't be any more a part of this family if he was flesh and blood. I miss him, Georgie and Katie miss him, Grandpa misses him, and Amy would kill me for saying this, but this whole thing has set her back for _way_ too long now."

"Is she OK?" the concerned old friend asked.

"I don't know for sure, Scott. Her mood is definitely….off, like she swings between being fine to being angry or depressed at the drop of a hat, and I can't see much improvement. She has been out on a couple of dates, but I think she is pretty rough on the guys, because we never hear from them again, except for one."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, there is this one guy, Gary Nolan. He works with Peter at the oil company out of Vancouver. He stays out on the road most of the time, so I suppose he has enough time to lick his wounds before he comes back to try his luck again. He is one handsome devil, though! I'll give him that!" she told her old flame, giving him her best _whatever _look. "So, what about Ty? I haven't seen him in weeks, since the graduation. How is he dealing with all of this?"

"You know how he gets, Lou, he puts on this face like everything is just dandy, and you can tell that he is hurting, but he won't talk to anybody about it. I wish I could do something to help, but damn if I know what that would be. I just keep him busy, trying to keep his mind off of.…Amy."

"You mean, after all of this time, he is still brooding around? I just don't get it, Scott, those two were meant for each other. I wish they could get together and figure things out, like they used to do. I guess they have forgotten how all of the most disastrous failures either one of them ever had was finally fixed when they got over themselves and worked their troubles out."

* * *

Georgie turned Phoenix up a narrow path away from the river and yelled back, "Amy! Let's go up that trail? That looks soooo cool! I'll bet there's wild horses' just roaming around _everywhere_ up there!"

"Yeah, and bears, and mountain lions, who knows what else, all waiting for a tasty meal to come wondering down that trail!" the wiser cowgirl advised.

"Uhh, OK, I guess I never thought of that." The young girl admitted.

"You have to promise me that you _will_ think about things like that while we are up here….No, you need to think about things like that _always_, even back at the ranch, because you have a habit of just jumping into something without thinking!" Amy scolded her. "How many times could you have been badly hurt, or worse, with some of the stunts that you have pulled, huh?"

"Geez, Amy, I'm _sorry_! I keep making you so mad at me, and I don't mean too!" Georgie apologized, again, with hurt feelings because of the way she looked up to her aunt as her idol.

Amy took a breath and dropped her hands with the reigns held loosely in her lap and looked to the hurt little girl to tell her, "Look, Georgie, it isn't your fault, I'm sorry for being so….strict, but I _do_ worry about you getting yourself into trouble or getting hurt, though. You need to learn to take care of yourself better than you do, because sometimes we can't always be there to watch over you every second, so it's going to be partly your responsibility to stay safe too."

"OK, I'll try, I promise," she accepted the lesson in needing to grow up, a little.

They continued to ride alongside of the Sheep River with the eager young rider constantly asking questions and enthusiastically pointing out things of interest to her. They eventually arrived at the start of the trailhead which leads to a vantage point that would allow them a fantastic place to have a picnic lunch and take in one of the most breathtaking views in the world, as far as Amy was concerned. She now knew it to be true with the firsthand knowledge of having seen for herself some of the best that other parts of the world had to offer. The ride took most of two hours, but the payoff was a spectacular view in every direction with the majestic granite Rockies and several small jewel colored lakes scattered all around, and the foothills and prairies to the east as far as the eye could see. "Look Georgie! Over there, see the river, way off in the distance, that is the same Sheep River as the one we are camping beside, and it runs down the mountain and about 80 kilometers later and passes right behind Heartland, so you can almost see home from here!" A rolled up pack tied behind Spartan's saddle contained the sandwiches, trail mix, and sodas required for a lunch she wouldn't have traded for any of the five star restaurants she had grown accustomed to while in Europe, and none of them had the ambiance of this place.

"Amy, can I ask you something, but I don't want it to make you mad at me?"

"OK Georgie, what question is so bad that it could make me mad at you?" she asked, amused by what the kid could possibly be thinking about while having a fantastic picnic lunch high up in the mountains in a beautiful setting like this.

"Can you stop loving somebody on purpose? I mean, because you decide too, and not because somebody makes you?" she wondered.

"I don't think I know what you are asking?" Amy was confused by the meaning of the idea her niece was getting at.

"Well, I know I'm just a kid, and all, but I thought you and Ty really loved each other, like, _really, really _loved each other, and now, he never comes to see you, and you never talk about him, so, how come you decided not to love him anymore?"

'_Oh, My, God, not now!' _Her brain froze for a couple of seconds, then clicked back on, searching for a way to try and come up with an explanation for the inquisitive young girl to understand without dismissing her, because this was not a kid who would accept an answer without some merit.

"What brought that on, anyway?" she asked, stalling for time.

"Because, I want to know what causes that to happen, I don't want that to ever happen to me, because I can see how much it hurts you."

"Georgie! What are you worried about, you are thirteen years old! Everybody at home loves you! You know that, don't you?"

"I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about if I find a boy I like and he likes me back, and then he just stops liking me, or something!" the girl explained.

"Oh, _Georgie_, what am I going to do with you?" she said, still stalling.

Amy waited for a few more seconds, praying for a possibility of something happening to get her niece distracted, but after no such luck surrendered to try to put into words things that she did not want to speak to _anyone_, let alone a curious thirteen year old girl.

"If you are worried about Steven, I think you are OK. That guy is head over heels crazy for you, you know!" she redirected to the lighter note of a young neighbor boy who was smitten by her niece.

"Yeah, and Ty was goofy for you too! So, what caused him to go away?" the relentless girl asked again.

"Goofy? Well, Ok then!" She looked at the teen which apparently was concerned about her first romance and tried to find a way to answer her questions. "Georgie, we _did_ love each other, and I know we still _do_ love each other, but when we got older, we found out that we each wanted different things in our lives. My new job that I really wanted to do was going to keep me away from home a lot, and I guess he decided he couldn't accept that. He wanted me to stay home all of the time and I wanted to travel and work with all of those beautiful horses, and see all of those beautiful places, so we just decided to go our separate ways."

"Yeah, well, then why does it make you so sad? Mom says that you are both just too hard headed to compromise, and that you both have to give up a little and meet in the middle, like she tells me to do, and you are both just too stubborn to do it!"

"Ohhh, she does, does she?"

"Maybe you shouldn't bring it up that I told you that?" she caught herself a couple of beats too late.

"Georgie, I haven't stopped loving Ty, but you have to understand that he doesn't want to be here alone while I am away, and that is something I can't help right now, that is my job."

After coming to a conclusion from her aunt's answers, there was finally an explanation the curious girl could sink her teeth into, "Soooo, then, you are saying that he got mad at you because you chose a job over him."


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Saturday morning turned into late afternoon, but Ty's attention never wavered due to his eagerness to get his hands on the best equipment available to the equine medical field. The clinic's layout was familiar, very much like the one he had seen in the UAE a few months before with the exception of a new lab that was capable of reverse engineering the shape of a horse's bone so as to replace a damaged one.

Ty and the others listened intently to Dr. Hartman and his lead engineer explaining the purpose of the lab. "Engineers in this area will use cutting edge technology to laser scan the damaged bone in order to make a computer model. If the damage is too severe to allow reproducing the bone, we can then scan the intact bone in the _opposite_ leg. Then, we can use that image to mirror the exact shape in a computer program, for example, to use the intact left bone, take it to the computer to model, mirror it so it is exactly like the right side, and manufacture an accurate replica to restore the damaged area. We will literally build a new bone to replace the destroyed one in one day! This is one of only three labs like it in North America. The procedure will be expensive, but for the horses we will be saving, it is well worth the cost to the owners.

"It looked to me like you enjoyed yourself while gawking at all of the toys you will soon have at your disposal," Ally mentioned as they walked through the unfinished reception area on the way to the main entrance.

"Yeah, I guess I could have gawked a bit. I have seen the need for that kind of process, to rebuild a bone structure for a broken leg that could have saved valuable horse," he remembered.

"Isn't it going to be amazing? Just the idea of being able to save most of the animals that wouldn't have made it before, it just gives me goose bumps!" she said while rubbing her palms up and down the length of her biceps.

"Goose bumps, eh?" he chuckled at the term.

"Eh? Oh, I forgot, that's a Canadian thing."

"And you are from….?"

"Oh, I am from Michigan. My dad worked in the automotive industry, until he retired."

"I guess that would explain your appreciation for fine automobiles!" Ty reasoned.

"In my _bluuud_!" she threw the city slang to him and laughed again.

"We had better do something about that promise I made for the ride on the Norton," making a note to keep his earlier commitment.

Ally looked at her phone and narrowed her eyes, "Ah, man, I have something that I have _got_ to take care of, and it looks like it can't wait, so….rain check?"

"Any time," Ty promised her, acknowledging another Saturday night at home, alone.

* * *

"That was an awesome ride, Amy!" the excited girl said of her first mountain trail ride. "What are we going to do tomorrow?"

"I don't know, Georgie, us _old_ people have to think about resting first, so how about getting a little wood in the fire pit and let's see about something to eat, make some marshmallows, and get to bed?" Amy suggested.

While they were finishing up the meal over the campfire, Amy gathered up the scraps and placed them in a sealed bag to hang in a tree a safe distance from the camp.

"What are you doing?" Georgie asked.

"We have to keep this stuff away from here, in case one of the animals wants to come around looking for something to eat. We don't want them in the camp with us and the horses, do we?"

The idea seemed like a good one, at first, but she decided that a grizzly in the camp might be a little too much. "Yeah, that wouldn't work out so good, would it?"

The amped up teen finally began to run down, exhausted from all of the excitement in what Amy was sure had been a memorable day for her. They turned down the covers and stoked the fire one last time before turning in. As they lay there, Amy could hear the worn out girl sleeping soundly, but her own sleep would not come as easily, just like every other night for the past few months. There was something wrong, like she had lost a part of herself, and she could not seem to find a way to fix it. Georgie's curiosity had dredged up some feelings that she thought she had put to rest, but being this lonely, even with all of her loved ones going out of their way to take care of her, was eating away at her happiness, if there was anything left of it.

* * *

The early morning mountain air left her arms shivering as Georgie made her way back to the cabin from the outhouse. _'Shoulda worn my jacket,'_ she thought too late. The trip was awesome, but the ancient bathroom was _not_ the high point of it.

"What are we doing today?" she asked as Amy worked at the fireplace to get them some heat.

"Well, we need some wood for the fireplace and for the fire pit for when we make lunch. Why don't you gather up some more sticks and bring them in here?" suggested the experienced camper.

"Sticks? Again?" the kid complained.

"Do you see an electric stove?"

"No."

"Then go get the sticks, and after I have my coffee, we are goanna go fishing for our lunch."

"Yeah, I was going to ask about that. We don't have much left to eat," said the concerned hungry teen.

"That is because I didn't account for how much _you_ could eat! But we are going to fix that with Grandpa's fishing gear we borrowed, so let's get this show on the road, so we'll have something to eat for lunch!"

Along about two-thirty in the afternoon, Amy gave Georgie a shout to come on back to camp. "Might as well com'on in, we will starve to death at this rate."

"What's left, we only got the two fish, and I don't think that will be enough, 'cause I'm hungry!" the young girl whined.

Amy did manage a meal adequate for the energy needed to pack up the camping gear, load the horses, and head for the foothills of home, thanks to the two saved back hot dogs she hid from her niece as a reserve, just in case.

* * *

The pair of worn out campers made their way back down the mountain into Hudson were Georgie reminded her aunt that Lou's kitchen would still be open at Maggie's and it would be nice to see about something to eat.

"Yeah, OK, I could stand to clean up a bit, so that sounds like a pretty good idea."

The senior camper made Georgie take a minute to use the restroom to clean off at least the top layer of her three days' buildup of grime before going to the counter to grab a stool and impatiently order her favorite chicken tenders, fries, and a Coke.

After she had brushed her hair and washed the grime off her own face, the younger sister found Lou sitting in her office doing paperwork and stepped inside to take a seat beside Katie who was coloring in a book.

"So, did you have fun?" Lou asked.

"Yeah, it was great, but that _kid_, she never _stops_!"

"I feel your pain, sis," laughing with a knowing smile.

* * *

Ty held the bike steady as he smoothly rolled through the winding roads in Kananaskis Country. Ally leaned into him with her arms around his torso, having spent the last two hours on the old Norton during Ty's personal tour of the foothills.

"I could use something to eat! Are you hungry?" he asked over his shoulder.

"I'm starving! And, my butt could use a break from this seat!" she admitted.

The riders found their way to the front of Maggie's and were glad it was still open on a Sunday afternoon, and luckily there were no cars parked in front that he recognized. When the couple entered the front door and walked to the dining area to find a table, Georgie noticed him and yelled, "Ty!" She swung around on the stool and ran over to him and put her arms around his neck for a big hug." Wow! I never thought I would see you here. I've missed you!"

"Hey Georgie, how have you been?….It looks like you have been roughing it this weekend. Have you been camping?"

"Yeah, me and Amy went up to Jack's cabin. It was great! That is my favorite place, _ever_!"

"I know what you mean. That is a special place, for sure."

Katie heard the commotion and recognized the voice talking to her big sister. She kicked her way out of the chair throwing crayons and coloring books askew and raced out of the office in a flash calling "Tyyyyyy!" with each running step jarring her voice. He braced himself to catch her and Katie latched herself onto Ty's left leg and gave him a bear hug, careful to put her feet on top of his shoe. He used to give her rides all the way from the house to the barn with her hanging on to him, but he noticed that she wasn't so small any more. "_Katie Bug_, how's my girl, huh? I would swear that you have grown a _foot_ since I last saw you!" he laughed.

"I am _not_ a bug!" she scowled with her playful rejection.

He bent over to pick her up and teased the little girl, "Well, Katie, I am a doctor of animals now, and I think I know a bug when I see one!" he said while poking her stomach with his finger, causing her to double over and cackle in his arms.

"Hey, stranger," his fascinated but unsteady ex-fiancée said to him as she leaned against Lou's office door with Lou peeking around from behind her, unsure of what the first meeting between them since the breakup would bring.

A jolt ran through him like he had unexpectedly touched a strand of electric fence. He twisted around to see her leaning against the wall with her thumbs tucked into her pockets and still showing the effects from three of days trying to keep up with her young trail riding companion.

Lou had told Amy about her youngest daughter and Ty being a lot closer after she left for the trip to Europe, but she hadn't seen it for herself, until now. Ty, having a lot of free time that needed to be filled with her being gone, was drafted by his once future sister in law to babysit the girl in order to keep him busy. Eventually Ty would come by on his own to take her into town while running errands, or out to the barn while doing chores. Amy remembered Lou telling her about the then three year old sitting on a bale of hay and 'reading' her story books to the attentive ranch hand while he worked. But seeing the two of them like this put a tightness into her gut that nearly made her run to him right there on the spot, until she noticed the sandy haired beauty leaning on her old motorcycle helmet on the table in front of her.

He steadied himself enough to say, "Amy! Hey, how's it going? And, hey, Lou!"

Lou walked around her bewildered sister who she could see was struggling to maintain her composure and went to give him a heartfelt hug and whispered into his ear, "Don't you be a stranger around here. All of us really miss you," with a direct look into his eyes, "_All of us!_" Ty knew what Lou was saying, but was unsure of how he should react with this group of onlookers gathered so closely around him. He just gave Lou a look so that she knew he understood and turned to introduce his co-rider.

"This is Dr. Allison Williams, a new friend of mine who will be working with me at the clinic. Ally, these people are what I know as my family. This is Lou Fleming-Morris, the owner of this establishment, and her daughter, Georgie over there stuffing her face at the counter," prompting the girl to turn and stick out her tongue at him, "her youngest, Katie, here, and that is Lou's sister, Amy Fleming."

'_Lou's sister_?' Amy thought.

Ally stood up to shake Lou's hand and waived a greeting to Amy who was still maintaining her distance at the office door. "Hi, guys, it is nice to meet you! And, call me Ally." she said giving them her best smile.

Ty continued, "They took me in as a kid at their ranch and I pretty much owe my life to them."

"Well, you all must be proud of _The Doctor_, here. He has told me a little about what you all did for him. That says a lot about who you are, to have done that for him."

The two riders took their order to go with Ty still uncomfortable at the thought of Amy being only a few feet away from him. He knew of a good spot to make a picnic out of their meal and it would be a nice way to get out of the uneasy situation.

* * *

Lou sat behind her desk so as to finish her paperwork and her sister dejectedly plopped in the seat in front of her.

"OK, Amy, I'm going to tell you something, and if it makes you angry, so be it, but you need to hear this _now_." Amy frowned at her sister, dreading what she figured was going to follow.

"Your window of opportunity is closing, _fast_! Did you get a look at that girl? She knows what she wants, and it is going to be up to Ty when she gets it. Not if, _when_. Don't sit there and tell me that you are going to let that happen!"

"It isn't up to me, Lou! _He_ is the one who left _me_, remember? And after the way I looked compared to her just then, why would he even give me a second look now?"

"Since when do you let someone dictate to you what is going to happen with your life without a fight?" Lou countered. "You know what you meant to him. What do you think went through his mind when you took that job with the Prince, and then turned around and took Lisa up on her offer without even saying a word to him while he was sitting right there with you? Grandpa told me he knew when you said those things at dinner that night that Ty was shocked and had just about had more than he could take. Ty talked to Grandpa before he made his decision, but Grandpa couldn't talk him out of it. That _should_ have been your job!"

"But, Lou!" Amy resisted.

"No '_but Lou's'_, Amy! Do you know the last thing he said to Grandpa that night in France while he waited for you to get back from the stables?" She waited for a response, but got none. "Grandpa asked him how he could leave you there like that, and he told him '_Because she isn't mine to keep, anymore. She has moved on to another life, just like everybody has been telling me she would. I'm not leaving her, Jack, I'm letting her go!_"

"What am I going to do, Lou?"

"You had better let him know that you don't want to be let go….and soon!"


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

They had no more than sat down on a log high on a grassy hillside overlooking the Sheep River when Ally looked at her tour guide and asked, "Ok, Borden, what the hell was that?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"_Oh, My, God, _that girl back there at the diner, Amy, she had you so far back on your heels when she surprised you that I am sure I could have pushed you over with my _pinkie_!"

"That's a long story…. that didn't end like I hoped it would," was all he was willing to offer her.

"Somebody got hurt in that deal and it looked to me like maybe it was both of you!"

"It could have gone better."

"May I just say that you are the master of understatement?"

"Yeah, well, this one is better to just leave it alone."

Ally measured his mood for a few seconds and then decided she probably should just drop it, for now. Earlier, she had been thinking about how well the two of them hit it off, at first, but this new revelation was likely a problem for any plans to progress with her newest romantic prospect. _'I need more information,' _she thought. Her phone chimed to her that yet another message was waiting. She continued to ignore them, causing Ty to ask, "So, don't you want to see who is leaving all of those messages? It must be important, with one coming in every few minutes."

"Nothing I need to worry about right now, I'm kinda busy!" she smiled and answered as she pushed 'mute'.

* * *

"Jack?" Lisa called through the open door of the barn. "Where are you?"

"I'm in here, Leese, com'on in."

She found him sitting at the desk in Lou's office looking at old pictures of his granddaughters as kids with their mother, his deceased daughter Marion. "Whatcha doin?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing, just looking at pictures of the girls and thinking how they have grown up. Look at them, so young and full of life. I sure wish Amy would get back to her old self. I have to tell you, Leese, I am worried about her."

"I know her breakup with Ty has been hard on her, for both of them, and I feel responsible for that. I regret proposing the deal for her to take over Fairfield….look how miserable she has been ever since!"

"Come on, Lisa, you know she was eager to do it. It is exactly what she has always dreamed of doing when she grew up."

"Teyeeaah! And look what that got her, because you know she dreamed about marrying Ty, too, and that is all but ruined because of my offer. I had no idea that he would respond the way he did."

"You can't blame yourself for this. Those two have to make their own decisions….this one just didn't work out. I sure do wish they could have talked it out, though. I understand the mixed signals Ty was thinking about, believe me!" he told her. "I had my own misgivings about you being gone so much. It does things to a man's mind, having his girl so far away and for so long," he admitted to his wife.

"Well, Jack, you worried too much, because I loved you far too much and for way too long to let distance weaken how I felt about you. Maybe Ty would have learned the same thing about Amy, if he'd stuck it out for a while."

"Well, you know, Lisa, I think I know a little bit about why he reacted the way he did. As far as I know, and Amy knows part of it, but no one else knows what brought Ty here to Heartland in the first place, exactly. The case file that his probation officer gave to me listed his family history with all of his records and the trouble he had been into, but it also included his medical evaluation from the Provincial Juvenile System. I can't remember the official name for it, but he has a condition similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many of the symptoms known with PTSD were in his case file. His stepfather, Wade, used to be a pretty bad guy. He would come home drunk and outraged because he lost money at the racetrack, or a card game, or whatever, and beat Lilly, and later on, Ty, half senseless. Ty was only ten when Wade showed up and he watched his mother let him keep them terrified and broke most of the time. One day, when Ty was eleven, Wade began to beat Lilly. It was an especially brutal attack. She was unconscious on the floor with Wade kneeling over her yelling, like he was crazy with anger, when Ty walked in the door from playing baseball with some of his friends. When he saw what was happening, he took his baseball bat and struck Wade on the back of the head and knocked him on the floor. Once he got him down, he kept hitting him, across the ribs and legs, until one of the cops came to pull him off. The neighbors had called them because of the noise Wade and Lilly were making, so the police being there to stop Ty was all that kept him from beating Wade to death." He took two deep breaths to regain his composure. "Ty has a good heart, and that is probably all that has saved him, that and Marion listening to Clint Riley and looking at his file. When she decided that she, _we_, could help him, that is the first time he experienced what a normal family life was like, if you can call us normal."

"Jack, I had no idea!" Lisa spoke, in tears. "But you tried to talk to him, right?"

"You see, he has a real fear that the people and things he loves are going to be taken away from him, that if he lets up for a second, they will be gone. That is why he got so upset with Amy and her decision to travel so much. With so many people telling him she would leave him for her new and better life, well, he just felt like it was coming true all over again."

"Isn't there something we can do, Jack? It would be such a shame to see them lose each other like this. They are so good together, and miserable apart, we need to help them let all of those worries go and concentrate on living the life they actually have."

"Who knows, Lisa? All I can say is that if I get a chance to help them, that's what I will do."

* * *

Lou came through the front door of her diner and looked at the skimpy crowd of Thursday morning patrons, too late for breakfast, too early for lunch. She noticed a familiar sandy haired girl sitting at the table beside the window overlooking the street and decided to go over to her and say hello.

"Ally? It's nice to see you."

"Hey, Lou, great to see you, too!"

"What brings you to our fair little diner this morning?" she asked.

"Actually, Lou, I came here to see you," the woman admitted.

"Oh? What about?"

Ally asked, "Could we go somewhere more private?"

"Sure, come on into my office," Lou directed her, suspicious of the meaning of her visit.

As the door closed behind them, Lou sat behind her desk and motioned for Ally to sit in the chair in front of her.

"What's on your mind, Ally?"

"Lou…OK, I'm just going to say it. I know Ty looks up to you and I was wondering what you could tell me about where he is, relationship wise, with Amy?"

"Ally, I think that is a personal question for you to ask Ty."

"Yeah, I know Lou, but, as you probably know, he isn't the most talkative individual you will ever meet when it comes to discussing private matters."

"I don't know what he may have told you, if anything, but Ty had it pretty rough as a kid. His parents were, shall we say, not up to the responsibilities of raising a child. They caused him a lot of heartbreak at an early age. I think he still fights to get over that, sometimes, but he is going to have to tell you what he wants you to know, when he feels the time is right."

After nodding to Ty's friend in agreement, Ally hesitated, then said, "Lou, I really like him, and obviously there was a moment between Ty and your sister when he saw her here Sunday afternoon, so I am just trying to figure out if I should pursue anything further than friendship with him right now. Basically, I want more, and I am looking for answers."

Amy's big sister sized up the woman who could be trouble, or maybe it would only be fair to Ty if he really needed to move on to stay out of it and not interfere. "Look, Ally, Ty is loved by all of us here. He is sweet and caring, and loyal beyond anyone I know. What he does with his life from here on is for him to choose, but I have one thing to say to you…._Do not hurt him_! He deserves better than that. So, whatever you decide to do, remember that I consider him to be my little brother and I will watch his back, and I will take care of him, whatever it takes," giving the good Dr. Williams her 'big sister' speech.

* * *

Early afternoon at the new clinic found Ty searching through one of several cardboard boxes full of personal things and some office supplies he got at a store in town. He had just been allowed to move into his new office and the look and smell of it was spanking new, with a bit too much 'fresh paint' odor for him to tolerate for more than a few minutes at a time. He was rummaging through a stack of old photos to place around his desk and on the shelves in the new bookcases when he found his favorite picture of Amy in the second one from the bottom. He stopped to study it for a while, remembering the day he took it. They were in the old meadow he had cleared off to put a makeshift jumping arena together for her when she was fifteen years old and just beginning to get Spartan gentle enough to ride. Amy and her friend, Soraya, wanted to begin training for jumping competitions again for the first time since her mother was killed while trying to rescue her large black gelding, but could not get him into a trailer. The girls had just about given up hope when one day Ty surprised his new 'horsey girl' friends by taking both of them to the course he wrangled together from hay bales and old logs to show them what he had done. The place eventually became his and Amy's favorite place to hang out when they wanted to be alone. Most of the big decisions they made together were determined while sitting there on the tailgate of the old GMC.

The picture in his hand was one he took of her and Spartan in that meadow when she was learning to do liberty work with him. She was running and laughing with the horse playfully prancing directly behind her, free of any halter or saddle and left to his own discipline. To him, it showed Amy's spirit and love of life better than any other photo he had ever seen of her and compared to the sight of her a few days ago at the diner, made him feel like a dagger just went through his gut.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

"Hey, I just wanted to ask you, do you have any plans for the pre-opening shindig here at the clinic Saturday night?" Ally asked as she poked her head around the door into his office.

"No, I hadn't really thought about it, I guess." Ty replied.

"Well, why don't we just go together, so we don't have to be alone? That way, I won't have to ward off guys all night who want to dance and mercilessly woo me."

"You didn't just say _woo_, did you?" he said with a chuckle.

"That is the nice way of putting it," she laughed. "So, what do you say?"

"Sure, that would be great, because I couldn't stand to see you mercilessly wooed!"

* * *

"Amy! Phone! Georgie yelled to anyone who could hear her.

"Georgie, must you do that? Why can't you just come and tell me I have a call?" Amy reprimanded her niece.

"Sorry, but this is a lot faster!"

"Gimme that!" the aggravated aunt said as she snatched the phone from the impatient teens hand. "Hello?"

"Amy? It's Gary, how are you today?" he attempted to break the ice.

"Hey Gary, I'm fine," she politely answered. "And you?"

"Great! Listen, I have a couple of invitations to the pre-opening party of that new horse clinic down in Okotoks Saturday night. Come with me! Since you are into horses so much, it would be perfect for you, what do you say?"

"I didn't know you were interested in things like that," she wondered.

"I'm not, really, but my dad is on the board of directors, so you will be sitting at the table where all of the big players are, not just a bunch of weekend cowboys filling the place out," he bragged.

"Uh, I don't know, I kind of had some plans…," she fibbed.

"Oh, com'on, Amy, it is high time you had some fun, let your hair down a little, don't you think?"

"I don't know if I…." she stalled.

"I'll pick you up at six. Wear something formal. It will be great, I promise!"

"Oh, all right," she gave in. "I guess that wouldn't be such a bad thing."

"Great! I'll see you then!"

The thought hadn't escaped her that she could possibly bump into Dr. Borden once the dancing started.

* * *

"Ty? My, don't you clean up nice!" Ally winked at him when she opened the door to her apartment. He was wearing a new suit for the first time and he felt as out of place as penguin in the desert.

"Thanks, you look nice, yourself!" he noticed as she twirled in the new dress she bought just for this night.

"Why don't we take the 'Vette….You drive," she tempted the gear head in him as she tossed him the keys.

"Oh, yeah! That is the best idea I have heard yet!"

Ty opened the passenger door for her to take the seat and walked to the driver's side to get in. When he turned the key the powerful engine sprang to life and purred under the hood.

"Man, this is an _awesome_ car!" he said as he slipped the shifter into first.

* * *

Everyone entering the main reception area stopped to pick out name tags in order for all who were present to easily find new staff members at the clinic and prospective business contacts. The ladies all wore elegant outfits and diamonds the size of almonds were common. Amy wore her black dress that Ahmed had sent to her room in Paris. "Damn, have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?" asked her date.

"Thank you, Gary," she shyly accepted the compliment.

"What's with the ring on the chain around your neck?" he asked.

"It just belongs there. I always wear it, no matter where I go."

"Uh, OK, I guess. Come with me and meet my folks, they are right over here."

The evening wore on with various speeches and slide presentations to show off what the clinic would soon represent to the community. When the live band started their first set the crowd immediately changed to party mode. Most couples were dancing and Gary reached out his hand to ask Amy to the floor. She hesitated for a minute because she had been watching Ty and Ally apparently having a great time at the opposite end of the room.

Ty twirled his date at the end of an up-tempo song and as they headed to their seats he asked her if she would like another drink. "Please! I need to cool off a bit," she said.

The bar was crowded all around and while he maneuvered to the front of the line Ty noticed Amy's date for the evening reaching for his order of drinks. "Jack and Seven for _my man_ and a_ Canada Dry_ for the lady!" the bartender chuckled as he handed them off. Apparently the guy was playing the bartender up because he handed him a couple of twenty dollar bills as a tip, and since the drinks were on the house, his percentage was looking pretty good.

Ally was obviously working at making headway with her date, but was becoming a bit agitated at the constant interruptions from messages to her phone she kept looking at, but not answering. The conversation ranged between the next few weeks getting the new clinic up and running to her wanting to see the original '57 GMC truck Ty told her about at the clinic's pre-opening walk through last week, since all she had seen was the Norton and the brand new blue GMC that he was now driving every day.

"You really want to see the GMC, eh? Ty tempted her.

"Yeah, I want to see if you are as genuine as your old truck," she countered.

Then he slipped in the question he wanted to ask for a few days now. "So, why is Donald so persistent, seeing as how you never answer his messages?"

"Wh-what? Umm….how did you…" Ally was surprised by the question.

"I can see the name all over his face on your phone when you get a message," Ty answered.

"Just somebody who needs to take a hint," Ally responded.

* * *

The party was beginning to wind down with many of the couples making the rounds to say good evening to their friends before leaving. Ty couldn't help but keep an eye on the girl who took up most of his thoughts for the last seven years. He noticed the ring he had given her was hanging around her neck, and it made him wonder why. She seemed to be getting groggy, maybe even a little drunk, which was odd given that he overheard the bartender joking about her glass full ginger ale.

When he noticed Lisa Stillman walking across the floor Ty excused himself from his date for a minute to go ask her a question. "Hey, Lisa, how have you been?" He asked, not knowing for sure how she would receive him after their first face to face meeting since the incident in France.

"Oh, hello, Ty! I am well, thank you. My, don't you look nice tonight!" She leaned in to him and looked him directly in the eye. "Ty, how are you getting along? Are they treating you OK here at the clinic?"

"Yeah, so far I couldn't ask for them to be any more supportive," he told her.

"Good! I am a boardmember here, so if they give you any crap, just let me know!" she told him and winked.

"Lisa, can I ask you a question? It's about Amy. Has she started to drink alcohol?"

"My Lord, no, Ty. She's the biggest tea-totaller I have ever met. I have yet to see her take a drink of anything alcoholic."

"Well, the reason I asked is….have you noticed her behavior this evening? She seemed fine earlier, but in the last fifteen minutes or so, I noticed she seems out of it, like, unsteady, and even flat drunk!"

Lisa raised an eyebrow and became amused at the thought, "So, Ty, you've been watching her, have you?"

"Maybe….It just seems to me that something isn't right. I'm worried about her, Lisa. Would you mind going to over to her and stall them from leaving, which it looks like they are about to do. If I am right, she doesn't need to be going anywhere with that guy."

"OK, Ty. It can't hurt to check on her," she reasoned.

"Just don't let them leave until I check something out with the bartender, please!" he pleaded with his friend.

Amy's step grandmother approached the couple while Gary was gathering Amy up out of her chair and the unsteady woman was obviously unable to function without help. "Hello, I am Lisa Stillman-Bartlett. I don't believe we have met."

"Uh….hello? Gary Nolan, pleased to meet you," he said as he labored to keep his date standing.

"Amy, you don't look so good, sweetheart. Are you OK?"

"She's just had a little too much to drink, is all," offered her date.

"Let's sit her down for a moment, Gary, shall we? I need to ask her a question, _privately_," looking directly into his eyes.

"But…..she is fine. I will take care of her," he argued. "She just overdid the bar tonight. I guess she was in the mood to party!" he told her with a condescending smile.

"OK, Gary, maybe you are right, but I still need to ask Amy a question, _please_." She insistently directed him to the side in order to try and get some privacy.

"Amy, did you drink alcohol tonight?" she asked.

"Noooo, I dooon't dr-driinnk. Nope, not me!" she said without even looking up at her mentor.

"How do you feel, Amy, tell me!" Lisa pleaded.

"I down't knooow….not so great. I th….think…..Ohhh, my head is…. spinning! I need to sit d-," was all she could manage to answer, going almost completely limp in her chair.

"You _are_ sitting down, Amy! Hold on, I am going to get you some help!"

Ty walked up to the bartender and greeted him, saying, "Hey, man! How's it goin'?"

"All is well, My Man! What can I get ya?" the man offered.

"Well, I have a question. See that hot blonde over there….in the black dress?" he baited him.

"Yeah? Goldie Locks? She is a looker alright, ain't she?" he remarked.

"Yes she is! Tell you what, I would like to find out whatever she is having and I'm goanna buy her a round, know what I mean?"

"Yeah, Man, I know, but I wouldn't waste my time. She's been getting ginger ale, on the rocks, all night. She must have brought something on her own, because it looks like the party has started, for sure!"

"OK, Thanks man, I just thought I would try," Ty told him as his head began to thump with anger when he turned to go to Lisa and see how she was managing the situation.

"Hey, Lisa, how is she?" he walked up to her and asked.

"Ty, come here," she motioned him closer. "We have to get Amy out of here, now! I think she has had someone put something in her drink because she doesn't even know where she is right now!"

"OK," the concerned, and pissed off friend told her. "I got this!"

"Ty walked up to the date and told him, "Party's over, man. You need to leave!"

"Yeah? Look who's here! The loser who she dumped has come to try and beg her back, has he?" he sarcastically dismissed Ty as he tried to step around him.

Ty blocked his way and said, "You don't understand….You are not getting any closer to Amy than you are right now, so leave, get out of here while you still can!" Ty warned him.

Gary threw a round house swing and landed a hefty punch on the side of Ty's jaw. The blow put him on his back, but Ty shook it off and got up to charge his opponent and tackle him to the ground. Once he was directly over him, Amy's former fiancé let his pent up frustration out in a burst of anger and began to pound his right fist into the Gary's nose and temple which left the man bloody and out cold on the floor. He was about to continue with a few more shots for good measure until a pair of hands grabbed the determined rescuer from behind. Another man knocked him down on his stomach to pull his hands around and place a pair of handcuffs on his wrists.

"Come with me, son, your party is over!" said the officer as he drug Ty outside and placed him in the back of his cruiser.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

"Officer, we need to get this woman to the hospital _right now_! She is not well and we need to have some tests done, and I need one of you to come along as a witness," Lisa thought quickly and told one of the security cops trying to sort out the mess.

"Why would you say that, Ma'am?" he asked.

"Because I am certain that she has been the victim of an attempted attack. She does not drink alcohol, and as you can see something is wrong, and we are going to get to the bottom of this, _NOW_! And I want this man arrested as well," pointing to Gary Nolan who was being helped from the floor by his father. "He swung first, and I think he is responsible for all of this. If that bears true, after the tests confirm it, I will personally see that charges are brought against him! Are we clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" the officer responded.

* * *

"Hello?" Jack answered the phone, miffed that someone would be calling at this hour. "What? Just stay there! I will get myself together and meet you at the hospital."

Jack looked for his wife in the waiting room on the second floor. When he found her she was sitting in a chair with her head in her hands and next to tears. "There you are! How is she? Have they told you anything yet?"

"I only know they took her into one of the emergency rooms. A nurse told me that they were going to pump her stomach and start her on fluids to flush out her system. I have the police here to monitor the whole thing, in case we need to file charges against the man who was her date tonight, Gary Nolan. I am certain that he put something in her drink. They have already checked her alcohol levels and there is none in her system, so that is not what caused all of this.

What do we know about this Gary Nolan fellow? And where can I find him?"

"Jack, not now….," she warned. "He is probably being bailed out by his father as we speak because I had him arrested. If we can prove that he put something in Amy's drink, I will not rest until he regrets ever doing that to our girl!"

A doctor stuck his head in the door of the room and asked, "Family of Amy Fleming?"

"Yes, is she alright? Oh, Jack Bartlett, and this is my wife Lisa," Jack responded.

"Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett, Hello, I am Dr. Kaminski. As you suspected, we found a significant amount of anesthetic in her system, excessive for what would be expected if taken by prescribed dose, which she has never been prescribed, but we also found oxycodone which is why she had such a severe reaction this evening. Combining the two, especially in the doses we found, can be extremely hazardous."

"So, Doctor, what does all of this mean, that she had a combination of drugs in her system which caused her to nearly overdose?" Jack asked in disbelief.

"Mr. Bartlett, I did check to see if she had a prescription for the oxycodone, which has recently been prescribed because of her complaints to her personal physician of intense pain from headaches, but we need to find out when the anesthetic was induced. The combination is what caused the severe reaction."

"I think I know the answer to that question," Lisa spoke up. "What if Amy had taken the dose of her pain killer earlier in the evening, then someone put the other drug in her drink tonight…. she was only having soft drinks, would that still cause the effects?"

"In these doses, yes," He stated.

"OK, with all of that said, how is she, Doctor?" the worried grandfather asked.

"We will need to monitor her for at least twenty four to forty eight hours, depending on how she recovers and what we determine caused the drugs to be in her system, that is to say whether or not she was self-medicating or in fact a crime has been committed, as you suspect. She is going to be feeling very out of it for a few days. The amount she ingested is very dangerous and could cause her to experience respiratory irregularities, dangerously low blood pressure, severe nausea, and various other side effects. Don't be surprised if after she wakes up that she will be confused and disoriented and likely not remember anything about what caused all of this. She probably will not regain consciousness for a while now because we are working at keeping her stabilized. You are very fortunate to have gotten her here so soon. Her circumstances could have been dire, if left unattended."

"Did you know about the painkillers, Jack?" his concerned wife asked after the doctor walked out of the room.

Jack thought about his suspicions and said, "No, I didn't know, exactly, but you know I have been worried about her. I knew something wasn't right. The doctor didn't say she was abusing the prescription, so we'll just have to see about that. I do know that she hasn't been herself, not since the accident with the Prince's horses at his stables. I always argued that she went back to work too soon. Maybe I was right. And it looks like I might have to have a talk with that Gary Nolan character."

"And, Jack," Lisa reminded her husband, "we aren't finished yet. We need to see about Ty. He is the one who figured out what was going on and now he is in jail because he stepped up to defend her. We need to help him, Jack!" she pleaded.

The fretful couple called the police station where Ty was being held and were told that there would be nothing they could do until the next morning. "Let's go home and try to get some sleep," Lisa suggested. "I will call my lawyer in the morning and work it out for him to represent Ty, and then we can go post bail and get him out of that place," she told her exhausted husband.

"Seems like I've been down this road before," Jack said as he thought back to the earlier days of his relationship with the delinquent who came to live with his family so many years ago.

* * *

It was mid-morning when Jack walked into the police station to finish his business with Ty's release. As the two men were walking to Jack's familiar old truck the older man said, "Are you OK, you look like hell."

"Thanks, Jack, for everything, and I have been better, I guess."

They drove south on the Deerfoot Trail with both men lost in their own thoughts. Jack was the first one to speak when he said,

"I see you busted up your hand. I suppose that's because Gary Nolan's face kept hitting it?" he imagined he would do the same, if given half a chance.

"Hit him hard, and often." Ty filled in his reclaimed guardian while he watched the prairie pass by through the side window of the truck.

The old cowboy set his jaw and nodded his approval.

"First of all, I want to thank you….for what you did for Amy. I don't know the whole story about all of that yet, but I do know that if you hadn't been looking out for her….," He choked up at the thought of what might have happened.

"Forget about it, Jack. What else could I have done? I could see that she was in trouble. I just checked it out, is all," he reasoned.

"No, that is _not_ all! What you did…._Dammit Ty_! Why can't you two just get over whatever grudges you are keeping against each other and work this all out?" the older man began to shout. "You two have been falling deeper and deeper into this….I don't even know what this is, but I _do_ know that Amy is in trouble and she needs you more than she _ever_ did before. Don't tell me that you don't care about her anymore. Any _fool_ could see it!"

"What are you saying, Jack? Why is Amy struggling now?" he argued. "She has been very successful with everything she has tried to do. She has become the 'Go to' girl with horse trainers all around the world. What could be so bad for her?"

"What I am going to tell you stays between you and me, got it?" Jack said directly at the younger man's face.

Looking back to his former and once again guardian, "No problem, Jack, just spit it out. Is Amy OK?"

"Amy has been, I don't know, having a hard time dealing with everything that she has been through, since you left her in France like you did. She puts on a good front, but I can see it, and Lou has mentioned it to me, so she feels the same way as I do. We know she is exhausted most of the time. She changes moods faster than I can keep up with. Everything can be just great one minute, then all to hell the next," said her worried grandfather.

Ty countered, "You know as well as me that she has always been high strung. But why are you saying this to me, do you really think she is in trouble?"

"The doctor at the hospital…" he started to explain.

"Wait, _hospital_?" Ty interrupted nearly in a panic.

"That's where she is right now. They have to watch her because she dropped unconscious just after they hauled you off. The doctor told Lisa and me that you were right about somebody slipping something into her drink at the party last night. Police confirmed through multiple witnesses that she only asked for ginger ale to drink, as usual. But he also told us that he found oxycodone in her blood work. The two mixed together almost caused her to overdose. If she had left the party with that guy, and hadn't gotten to the hospital as quick as she did…," he cleared his throat and continued. "She has a prescription for the pain medication, but the fact that she even needs it now after all of this time, it tells me that she hasn't recovered from the accident at the stables like we thought she had. As soon as she wakes up we will be able to ask her what is going on, but the doctor said that the drug she was given last night may keep her from remembering any details about the evening. What I am trying to say is, you saved her life, Ty. If you hadn't done what you did, she wouldn't have made it." Jack told him while trying not to break down in front of the man that knew his granddaughter better than anyone.

Ty mulled the new information around in his brain to try and make sense of it all and asked, "What do you need me to do?"

Jack looked at him and said, "You may be the only one who can get her to tell us what is wrong. We need to find out why she still needs those painkillers. There could still be something physically wrong with her and if we can't make her get checked out….well, it just wouldn't be good."

"OK, if you think it would help, I will go see her and do what I can to get her to talk to me, although it may be a little optimistic to think that I am someone she would open up to, after everything that has happened."

"All you can do is try, Ty," he told him, "but if I were a bettin' man, I'd put my money on you."

"By the way, where are you taking me?" the thought occurred to the just sprung inmate.

Jack glanced to his passenger and matter of factly said, "Home."


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

The all too familiar smell of a sterile hospital hallway brought many unpleasant memories to Ty as he searched for room #239. He tapped on the door with the knuckles of his left hand because his right ones were still sore and wrapped due to the multiple meetings with Gary Nolan's face. When he peeked through the door he saw Lou sitting beside her still sleeping sister and stroking the back of her hand. The look on her face showed too much concern for his liking. "Excuse me, I didn't mean to interrupt," he apologized to them and began to back out of the door.

"No! Don't you dare leave!" she whispered and motioned for him to come on to the room.

"How is she, Lou?" he asked.

"Oh, Ty, she is still foggy about that night. She hardly remembers getting to the dance, much less what happened after that. I understand you saved her life….again." she said with obvious gratitude to her dear family friend.

Lou scooted her chair away from her sister and intently walked around the end of the bed to wrap her arms around his neck, then broke down and cried in his arms. She pulled back to say something to him, but couldn't make the words come out. Ty's unofficially adopted big sister put her forehead against his chest to let out a weeping sigh of relief, "Thank you, Ty. We won't forget what you did, and I hope you know that you are a part of our family, and we take care of our family," she promised him after placing her hand on his heart. "I heard what they did to you at the clinic, but don't give up just yet. We aren't finished with them. You have some influential people in your corner. Let's get some coffee in the cafeteria. We need to talk," as she gathered his arm in hers to guide him through the door and back down the hallway.

* * *

The two concerned friends picked a table away from most of the foot traffic and sat down to continue the talk. "Ty, if you don't want to answer any of the questions I want to ask, then that's OK," she offered, "but there are some things I really wish you would tell me."

"Anything, Lou, it's OK."

"Are you getting serious about Ally? I can see that you like her, and in case you didn't know, she came to see me at the diner a few days ago. She was asking questions about you and she told me that she was interested in moving your relationship ahead, but you weren't cooperating like she wished you would," she smiled with curiosity.

"Yeah, well, I do like her, well enough I guess, but with her fiancé sending her messages on her phone every ten minutes like clockwork, I figured that would be the end of anything happening between us," he pinched his lips and made his patented 'can you believe it?' look to her.

"What? She never said anything about any fiancé to me!" Lou dropped her jaw is disbelief.

"Me neither! I kept seeing this guy's face on her phone when he would constantly message her, and she would never respond while I was with her. I finally asked her about it at the party and she fessed up, told me that he didn't want to move out here from Michigan to be with her when she accepted this new job at the clinic. They fought about it until they called it quits, so she says, and she picked up and left without him! Now, he wants her back and says he is willing to move out here and work with her to fix their relationship."

"Soooo, what is she going to do?" asked the interested renovator of her sister's misdirected relationship.

"He is coming to see her this weekend and intends to stay for a couple of weeks to look around the area and see what he thinks about everything out here," he explained to her.

"Soooo, what does Ally have to say about that?"

"I think she will listen to him, and if he is serious about trying to work things out, she will try to as well," he said.

"I guess I should be sorry, Ty, but I'm not," she confessed. "I haven't given up hope that you could work things out with Amy because I know in my gut that you two are meant for each other and I think you know that too."

"I have always thought so, Lou, but I can't do it by myself. She has to want it as much as I do, and I thought that was how she felt too, until all of this talk came up about travelling around the world half of the year and how excited she was to do it. That is when I saw that I couldn't give her the life she needed to have in order for her to be happy."

"You don't know how much it hurt her for you to leave her like that, do you?" she asked.

"Probably about as much as it hurt me, Lou, except I was left completely empty when all the plans we made….they just died. Those things we talked about were gone, just like that, and I had no backup plan. She had all of the exciting new prospects with her career and she chose to follow them, not what we had. I knew I couldn't sit at home for half my life waiting for her to come back home, wondering when she would find someone she thought was a better match for her while she was out who knows where with all of the rich 'pretty people' she would be meeting."

"She misses you more than you think," the worried sister confided to him. "She is completely lost, Ty. I see it in the way she reacts to things that should thrill her, like when some famous person comes to ask her for help with their horse, or to help them purchase one for an investment, and she behaves like she gets nothing out of it anymore. But what I _do_ see is how she is laboring to get through each day. She almost never smiles and she can be downright hateful, sometimes. Does that sound like the girl you remember?" she challenged him.

"No, it doesn't. But I don't know what I can do to fix things now, Lou. I have heard from old friends that she has been dating guys, so I assumed she was ready to move on. Don't you think we have gone different directions, maybe too far now to think about any relationship working for us?

She looked at him in a way that Ty knew was coming from her heart. "Those guys, there were three of them including Gary, were just an excuse to get her out of the house. I could see how she was hurting and, in fact, I was the one making the effort to try and get her out and have a little fun to see if I could get her to think about somebody besides you! That backfired, mostly, because she would come back home in a worse mood than when she left. Two of them never even called again, and as for the third, I wish he would never have called either!" she admitted the mistaken trust she had for Gary Nolan and sighed. "Amy only trusted him because Peter knew him from his company and we all thought he was… a better person than he turned out to be." Lou then took his uninjured hand in hers and told him, "You spoiled her, you know. She was used to being treated like she was adored, not just some accessory to an arrogant ass who wanted to show his friends he was out with the 'Miracle Girl'. In answer to your question, I believe that if you want it to work, then it can. You two still have some things to learn about compromise and trust, but I believe sometimes people need to be broken down before they can begin to build themselves back up. You need to talk to her like you used to, because she valued your opinions more than anyone else's. See if you can get her to tell you what she is thinking about and how she feels about the way things have been going for her. You are the only one of us that can make her open up like she needs to. I just know it, Ty. Will you do it?" she gave his good hand an insistent squeeze.

* * *

The nervous visitor stood alone in front of door #239 and paused to inhale a shaky breath before pushing it open to peek inside. He awkwardly entered the room and began to look for a safe distance to stand in front of her, but seeing her so fragile and helpless made him walk to the side of her bed and place both of his hands on the hand nearest to him. He sat in the chair to look at her and somehow hoped that she could draw something from his touch that used to make both of them know that everything would be better now that they were together.

Enough time had passed for Ty to remember the effort each of them had put into getting to know each other as kids and how their relationship was founded on honest and simple trust. They could tell each other secrets that no one else would ever know because the guarded confidences were uncompromisingly safe in the other's care.

The memories, both good and bad, sent his mind spinning in circles until he winced in pain from unconsciously gripping Amy's hand so tightly that his own injured knuckles reminded him they were not ready for use. He collected himself back to the current moment when he realized she was beginning to stir. "Hey, how are you feeling?" he asked.

"Ty? I, uhh, I thought I was having a dream, that you were here with me….but it's true?" she asked as the haze began to clear in her head.

"I'm here….where else would I be?" he tried to make light of the unexpected reunion.

"I am surprised to see you here," she said in a groggy and weak voice. I've been better," she tried to answer with regard to his laid-back response, "but I hear that I would have been a lot worse, if it hadn't been for you," she told him as her face reddened and tears began to slide out of the corners of her eyes while she laid back, still unable to make easy movements.

This was the first time the two of them had been alone since day of the breakup. Neither one of them knew exactly how to start the conversation but Ty eventually asked, "Do you remember what happened?"

"No, not really," she strained to recall. "I sort of remember sitting down at the table with Gary and his parents. There were a few other couples at the table with us, but I don't remember much about them. The next thing I know, I am waking up in this bed and feel like maybe I just came back from the dead, or something. I still can't hold myself steady enough to walk without holding on to the railing on the bed."

"Amy, listen, has the doctor asked you any questions about your prescriptions yet, or anything else about what you may have taken that day?" he carefully started to put his concerns to the test.

She thought, then answered, "He wanted to know about the headaches I have been having and how much medication I have been using."

"Can I ask what you told him?"

"Just that the headaches are coming back, like they were right after the accident, and I asked my doctor to give me something for the pain."

"It is powerful stuff, Amy. You would tell me if you took more than the prescription called for, wouldn't you?"

"What are you saying?" she began to anger. "Do think I would abuse the pills, like I wouldn't have remembered what they did to my dad, or Caleb?"

He raised his hands to try to calm her down, "I'm just asking, Amy. I know you probably don't appreciate me coming in here and asking things like this, but I hope you know that I am worried about you and I want to help."

"Are you kidding me? _Now_ you are worried, after you left me alone for all of these months?" she asked.

Ty hung his head, unsure if he should try and divert the subject to _anything_ else, but decided to finally let her have her say.

Amy gritted her teeth and got right to the things she had wanted to confront her former fiancé with for so long now. "Do you realize what your dumping me like that did to me? I can't believe you would think that I would choose some _stupid job_ over you! I was devastated….and heartbroken to know what you actually thought of me! I would have given it all up in a minute, if you had only asked me to!"

He sat in the chair that Lou had been using and slid it forward so he could look into her reddish-blue eyes. "I know you would have, Amy, don't you see? Do you remember the talk we had after you turned down the job with the "Dark Horse" show? When you told me that we shouldn't tie each other down? Well, I made a promise to myself, right then and there, that I would always let you have the freedom to do anything you wanted to do, that I would never be the one to keep you from the things you were meant to do in life. If I had asked you to come home and not to take that job as Ahmed's trainer, or as Lisa's partner, or whatever may have come up, we would be fighting about it right now because you would have resented me for not letting you go."

"That is _not_ true, Ty! Don't you see that I was just trying to get well enough known that we could have a better chance to get ahead, so we wouldn't have to pinch pennies and struggle to survive like we were doing before. I love the horses, and I loved the jobs I took, but none of that matters if I have to do it without you! I wanted to do special things, _together_, to share all of those things with you!"

"Together, Amy? What is so _together_ about living half a world away from each other for months at a time? I can't understand how you are thinking that would have worked for us."

"Because, Ty, I wouldn't have been gone as long as you are thinking I would have been, not after I got everything going! And, if you could have trusted me enough to ask me what you were really thinking, I could have answered any of your questions! I don't….didn't want to be away from you like you think. You were as much a part of my plans….more of my plans than anything else!"

"But, Lisa…," he started to remind her when she interrupted,

"Lisa lived in France for months at a time because she _chose_ to, not because she _had_ to! Her villa is a home base for her operations in Europe because she loves it over there and she travelled because she enjoyed it so much." The agitated patient increased the intensity of her explanation, "My job was going to be more specific and to the point if I wanted it to be, which I did! After I met all of her clients, both for selling and buying horses for Fairfield, which I have already done, I would only have to see them once or twice each year, maybe two weeks each visit, and that would be all of the time I would be gone. I was hoping that you could have come with me sometimes, like a vacation, and we wouldn't have had to be apart so much. Ty, I…," Amy fell back into the pillows behind her on the bed and jerked the still free right hand to press her fingertips against the temple that exploded into the intense pain that throbbed inside her head. Moaning at the stabbing pulses increasing with each heartbeat, just then she realized that Ty had never released his grasp of her other hand, and faded into blackness.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

Time was something for Ty to think about while he waited for any news of how the operation was going. He thought how odd it was that time flew past when everything was in order, like during all of the years he and Amy were getting to know each other and learning to share the important parts of their lives. Now those years seemed to him like a few brief moments out of all the days he knew as his life. Days like this one caused time to stretch each agonizing tick of the clock hanging on the waiting room wall into a game of second guessing with whys, what ifs, and what he would have done differently, if he had the chance. There were also the wildly varying images in his mind of how Amy could be affected by the emergency surgery she had been subjected to for three hours now. Having studied brain injuries as his personal obsession after the love of his life suffered a traumatic blow to the back of her head from the hoof of one of the horses at Hillhurst Stables last year, he knew that it was unusual for Amy to have gotten over the trauma like she appeared to have done and now to be having severe headaches again. It was even more unusual for her to suffer a Subdural Hematoma after all these months beyond the initial injury, but the one recurring thought he couldn't shake was _'What if she doesn't remember what we meant to each other growing up together and everything we have been through, or even who I am_?'

After running all the scenarios of possible causes to the relapse through his mind he decided something was being missed and asked, "Lou, do you know if there is any chance that Amy might have bumped her head again, as in the last few weeks?"

"No….but now that you mention it, she did come in from working out in the barn two, maybe three weeks ago, looking for some Tylenol. I remember because she took _four_ of them, but she didn't say anything about what caused the pain," she recalled. "Why do you ask?"

"I asked because I think it is not likely for a Subdural Hematoma to take this long to show up after a concussion like the one she suffered at Hillhurst. If it were going to happen, it should have been no more than a few weeks later. But, if she was experiencing a headache severe enough to cause her to think she needed four Tylenol for the pain she was feeling…, maybe she hurt herself again and didn't want to tell anyone about it."

The worried sister gave a look of exasperation at the thought and said, "It wouldn't surprise me. She has been more guarded about sharing much of anything with me or anybody else lately." She looked across the room in front of her and asked, "Grandpa, did you notice anything?"

Jack had been listening to the conversation from his seat opposite of Lou and recalled, "No, not exactly, but I have noticed she has been wearing her hats less often. I made a comment to her about it once and she told me she didn't want to wear them like she used to because they were uncomfortable. I just assumed it was because she had outgrown the style, maybe she didn't feel like a cowgirl anymore, being the world class horse trainer, and all, but I suppose it could have been discomfort from something like another bump on her head that caused her to change her opinion of hats."

* * *

The minutes slowly dragged into the fourth hour with no news since the emergency operation began. It was emotionally exhausting to the entire family which spent their time doing everything from vacantly walking the halls or going outside to take the loop on the sidewalk surrounding the hospital, or making multiple trips to the cafeteria to feed their constant craving of coffee. Ty made use of any opportunity to keep distance between himself and Amy's dad, including riding the elevators with Katie and walking with the child outside into the flower garden beside the front entrance to the hospital.

Tim Fleming, who apparently still thought he had a score to settle with his once committed son in law to be, kept giving Ty _the look_, sending the message that he had not let go of recent events between the young man and his daughter. In his eyes Ty walked out on Amy for no good reason and broke his daughter's heart and for that he would surely have to answer to him one day. It wouldn't be the first time the two had tangled over conflicting ideas concerning Amy's well-being.

Jack was trying to rest under his tipped down hat with Lisa leaning her head against his shoulder when the doctor poked his head into the door of the waiting room and asked, "Family of Amy Fleming?"

Jack and Lisa stood along with the others in the waiting room to greet him. Ty and Lou were walking in the hallway on their way back to the family with more coffee when they saw the doctor enter the room in front of them. Together, they broke into a sprint to meet him and listen to any news he could bring. When they all had gathered around him, the doctor spoke in his calming voice, "I just wanted to let you know that Amy is out of surgery and in recovery. The surgery went well and she is stable and resting. I am optimistic about the outcome of the surgery, one reason being the immediate response time relative to her suffering the episode and getting her quickly into surgery to attend to the problem, although we will have to wait to see how she does after she wakes up. We will monitor her vitals and see how she responds to things like light, or stimulation in her fingers and toes, then we will decide when we should begin to let her wake up. Again, every case is different and we will have to let her recover at her own pace."

"Thank you Doctor," Jack responded. "Please let us know if there is any change?"

"Of course, we will let you know as soon as there are any developments with her condition," he assured them.

When the doctor turned to leave the room Jack looked around to everyone and said, "You all know how this works. It will be a while before we can see her, so I think maybe one of us should stay to keep an eye on things here at the hospital. We can take turns with someone keeping watch over Amy in shifts and the rest of us can go take care of whatever we need to tend to and get some rest. She is in good hands right where she is and will need all of us to help out when she wakes up, so rest while you have a chance.

"In good hands?" Tim spoke up with his normally sarcastic opinion. "If she was in good hands, she wouldn't be here right now! We should have taken the Prince up on his offer to fly her to the best surgeons available instead of bringing her to this 'hack shop'. If that no account _ex-fiancé_ of hers hadn't talked you all into bringing her home to heal, everything would be _fine _now! Instead, here we are again with my daughter fighting for her life! And by the way, what the hell are _you_ even doing here?" he said with an accusing finger pointed toward Ty. "You are as much to blame for her being here as anyone!"

Jack stepped between the two men and said to his ex-son in law, "Tim, I don't want to hear another word out of you or…"

"Or, what, Jack, what are you going to do?" the cowboy challenged his former father in law.

"Jack, take it easy," Ty jumped into the argument. "I think this is more about _me_ than anything else, so this is between me and Tim, _again_."

Lou had been quiet for hours but the pressure she was holding inside finally let loose when she stuffed her open hand against her father's chest and pushed Tim out of the door into the hallway and commanded, "Dad, if you lay a hand on Ty I will personally take a club to you myself! In case you haven't figured it out yet, if it hadn't been for Ty, Amy would probably be dead right now because of that creep, Nolan. It is because he was looking out for her, like he has always done, that she is even able to have a fighting chance to get better. So, I mean it, leave him alone! Just go home and cool off!"

Tim hesitated for a moment, taken by surprise with the determination of his oldest daughter, and then huffed down the hallway ignoring the other patients and visitors who stared at the loud and obnoxious cowboy who they realized was causing all of the chaos in the waiting room.

"Thanks for keeping that from getting any more dramatic than it already was," Ty told them. "I guess I am going to have to deal with him at least one more time, but not now," he reasoned while he sat in one of the empty chairs and hung his head to gather his temper back in.

"Don't you worry about Tim," Jack said to his tormented friend. "I will make sure he gets my drift about staying clear of you, I mean that, Ty!"

"Thanks, Jack. Why don't you all go on home and let me take the first watch over Amy. I will let you know if anything happens."

"Ty, I don't know….you look exhausted already," Lisa spoke up.

"I can't leave her now, I feel responsible…in so many ways. Tim is not entirely wrong, you know….We argued, or I should say, she was chewing me out pretty good when she blacked out. Maybe she got so mad at me that something happened because of that," he reasoned, trying to make some sense of the conversation that was interrupted by Amy's relapse.

"Ty, you can't know what happened, nobody does," Lisa assured him, then turned to ask the family, "Everyone, please, go on home. Jack, do you think you could take Lou home so I can stay here with Ty for a few hours? I will catch a ride back to the ranch when I am ready."

"Of course, Lisa," Lou assured her. "You stay as long as you need to."

"Thanks, everyone," said Lisa as she reached up to kiss the old cowboy who looked like he could use a good sleep, "Then it is settled with Ty and me for the first watch."

* * *

Another half hour slipped past after all of the others had gone with the two of them watching visitors walk by the waiting room door and birds hopping from limb to limb on the tree outside the window before Lisa finally got around to asking Ty about the conversation he and her step granddaughter were having. "Can I ask why Amy was so mad at you?"

"She was lashing out at me over the way I left her in France. She was getting more upset by the second, you know, telling me she would have given up the jobs and being away so much, if I would only have told her how I felt about what was happening to us, but she sort of stopped, and she was trying to tell me something when she collapsed into her pillow and blacked out," he told her.

"She is going to be OK, Ty. You have got to know that whatever happened to her was not because of you," she tried to comfort him.

"I don't know, Lisa, I can't help but feel like I pushed her into too much stress."

"Oh, Ty, we all could find a way to blame ourselves if we thought about it. In fact, I have felt terrible about offering to have Amy take over for me at Fairfield. I feel like I came between you two, and I am so, so sorry about what happened between you and Amy after that."

"Lisa," he said, "It was her decision to take the job. You remember she didn't even have to think about your offer before she accepted it, so we both know what she really wanted to do with her life. I was kidding myself to think I could keep her happy with what little I had to offer a woman like she has grown to be."

The woman who would have been his step grandmother in law got up from her chair and crossed the room to sit in the one beside the broken young man and placed her open palm softly on his cheek and looked directly into his reddened green eyes as she spoke. "Ty, Amy and I have spent a lot of time together in the past few months. We have talked a lot in that time and I have gotten to know her very well. I can tell you without any doubt that that girl loved you more than any job, or horse, or anybody else. She has been hurting without you and has had a terrible time accepting what her life would be like without sharing it with you. She honestly was not ready for your response of leaving her because she thought you would be proud of her and happy that her career was taking off like it was. I really wish you would have talked to her about your concerns before you made the decision to leave outright."

"It was a lot of things, Lisa, not just the jobs and her being away for so long. After I let Caleb talk me into investing in Charger, I believe she began to see some of my Dad's bad habits in me, the part where he would blow all of our money on something stupid and leave his family broke and struggling to survive. I think she realized that I wouldn't be as reliable as she once thought and was maybe rethinking our relationship. I am sure I destroyed her confidence in me and I regret having done that…. to _us_."

"You know, Ty, we talked about your investing in that horse, and she did bring up how upset it made her to think you would take a chance like that. You should know that I told her all successful business people are risk takers, especially the ones who make something out of nothing, like you have done. You didn't just buy some random horse and expect a miracle. You knew Charger's potential when others had given up on him and took advantage of an opportunity to make a profit. You might have been in trouble if Amy hadn't stepped up to help you and Caleb out like she did, but the point I was trying to make is that you saw an opportunity and capitalized on it and came out a winner on the deal. You had the resources available to you to fix the problem. That is how it's done if you are going to build a prosperous business, act on instinct and make your idea work."

"Yeah, for all the good it has done. I wonder if anybody besides me sees the irony in how Amy and I both had a good run with our careers and everything we were trying to build for our future was going so well, yet somehow we both lost the most important part of what we were all about…our commitment each other?"

"It is only lost if you both give up, right? I know it has been rough for both of you, but think about what I just said a minute ago. You were in trouble and Amy saved your investment with that horse. Amy was in trouble at the party and you saved her from, well, you saved her life! How many times can you recall that one of you came to the rescue of the other over the years? Isn't it clear that you both need and rely on each other and when you work together, that is when you are at your best? Don't give up on her, or yourself," she encouraged her weary friend.

"You sound like Jack, only nicer," they both managed a chuckle at the comparison of different styles Lisa and her husband used to give the same advice.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Jack placed a full bucket of water and a flake of hay into each stall for Spartan, Phoenix, Harley, and some client's horses that were soon to be returned to their homes. Most of the owners agreed to give Amy a chance to heal from her surgery and offered to return when she was ready and able to continue working with horses again. He looked at the schedule board on the wall next to the office door and decided he needed to talk to Lou about adjusting any remaining details with appointments, feed orders, and supplies they would be needing less of with the drop in attendance from customers.

"Lou? Any word from the hospital this morning?"

"No, Grandpa, the last I heard was from Dad around seven this morning when he said they chased him out of Amy's room after he tried to sneak in to see her," she shook her head and chuckled. "In his words, '_She still looks like hell'_. I don't know what he expected, seeing that she just had her skull cut open."

"Wouldn't surprise me if they put guards at the door and told 'em to shoot the idiot if he comes anywhere near her room again….Can't say as I would mind for that to happen," he gave an approving nod at the idea.

"Poor Dad," Lou mused. "It seems like, if there is a more difficult way to deal with any given situation, he will find it! I am going to take over his watch about noon, before Ty goes to the hospital see her. I have to make sure and keep those two apart for a while. And Amy….she is going to be really upset when she finds out about that big patch of hair they had to cut off to do the surgery. I hope she doesn't think of that until she regains some of her strength and can deal with it better, on top of everything else…, that is, if she can even remember what her life was like, or who she is," said the older sister who let her head fall into her hands which were supported by propping her elbows on top of her mother's old desk.

"I think we can deal with the hair," remarked Jack with a slight huff. "There will be plenty of things more important than that to worry about, don't you think?"

"It's a girl thing, Grandpa! Do you remember the last time she had any significant amount cut off the length of her hair?" she watched as he squinted into his memory of Amy with less than shoulder length curls. "Me neither," Lou continued. "And she is going to be very self-conscious about her appearance, especially when she thinks of how she looks to Ty!"

"Like it would matter to him!" Then, Jack suddenly remembered, "Speaking of Ty, Lisa tells me Ty can expect some good news from a special meeting they are having down in Okotoks this morning, if everything goes like she thinks it will. She asked me if I would say something in Ty's behalf, so I need to go get cleaned up a bit and head on over there. She says she will go to the hospital when they are finished so she can tell Ty in person how the vote turned out and what his options will be as far as getting his job back."

"I hope everything goes well for him," Lou thought out loud. "He does not deserve to have something like this to ruin his career, especially now, when all of his hard work and sacrifices should begin to pay off."

Jack nodded in agreement with his first granddaughter and then set his jaw while recalling the young man's resolve to succeed. "He put everything he had into making something out of nothing much to work with, given the childhood he grew out of, and I know his determination to show Amy that he could do his part to provide for a family was mostly what made him want to be a veterinarian in the first place. I sure do hope they can find a way to patch things up between them."

"They both need that more than either of them would have admitted before," Lou added, "but, I'll tell you, Grandpa, I think now that they have seen how different their lives would be without each other, and what they are actually giving up, they will be willing to try and find a way to get over whatever is holding them back this time," she said with a certain conviction. "All of us want to help them as much as we can, and I hope we can give them as much support, or as little, as they will need."

* * *

Ty fidgeted with his phone and checked his messages every few minutes in hopes that Lou had texted an update from the hospital. She previously sent the last encouraging news when she was allowed to go into Amy's room in the intensive care this afternoon. Now the questions circling around in his mind about the outcome of the surgery would soon be answered.

"Ty, why don't you go on over to the hospital and see her?" Scott proposed. "You know that is where you should be, so go."

"Are you sure? I mean, what if she doesn't remember me, or worse yet, doesn't want to see me at all if she does?" he thought.

"Of course she will, Ty! She wasn't finished telling you off yet, so you can bet she will want to finish that because a woman never forgets what she is mad about, trust me!" his friend and mentor said while slapping him on the shoulder.

* * *

Ty stepped into the waiting room with two not so fresh cups of coffee for him and Lisa who had called earlier to say she would meet him at the hospital to keep him company for a while and to give Lou a ride home when she was ready. "Here you go, I can't speak to the enjoyment you will get from what is in this cup, but it ought to help keep you awake. I think it tastes too bad to let you go to sleep," he laughed as she pouted and took it out of his hand.

"How is she, Lisa, have they told you anything this afternoon?" Ty asked.

"Yes, actually I talked to a Lou just a while ago, and she tells me that Amy is growing restless in her sleep, responding well to all the tests they have tried, and our girl may be waking up any minute now!"

"Oh, man, that's great! I-I hope she's… going to be OK." he said, struggling with uncertainty in anticipation of the girl who once was the center of his every thought coming back to them from the brink again, one way or the other.

"She's tough, Ty, you know that! Everything will be fine!" she tried to lift his spirits and then continued, "I have some news for you about your situation at the clinic in Okotoks."

Ty raised his curious gaze to her and wondered where her comment would lead. "Are they still looking for a tall tree and a short rope for my lynching?" he quipped, trying to ease the tension.

"No, Ty, as a matter of fact, I spoke to our lawyer this morning before the board meeting. Some of my associates and I have taken it upon ourselves to get Mr. Nolan back in line. I have had a friend of mine do a little investigating and he has found some interesting tidbits about the sorry bastard that you so deservingly punched out the other night. Oh, sorry, I just have a real loathing of that man," she admitted with a slight blush because of her rashness.

"No, I understand, Lisa, and I appreciate the way you tell it like it is, with no sugar coating," Ty said with renewed interest. "What did your investigator find?"

"He has discovered at least two cases in two different Provinces where Gary Nolan was accused of doing the same thing he tried to do to Amy, only apparently was successful in those attempts. Both women pressed charges, but the cases were settled out of court and, _POOF_, it was like they never happened and Gary was set free. The charges are a matter of public record, as are the newspaper clippings, so at least they can be used in court to show a pattern of his behavior and to threaten his claim of innocence. We have only just begun to research Nolan, so there will likely be more things come up as we go," she told him. "The result of today's meeting is that his father no longer wants to pursue any charges against you! He has been warned that if he causes you any trouble, and I mean if he so much as cuts in front of you in the lunch line, that a majority of the board will send him packing out the door and away from anything to do with the clinic. I have talked to Dr. Hartman and he is very excited to get you back as his assistant. He should be calling you, perhaps as early as tomorrow. The downside is that they are calling it a probation period of one year. How does that sound?"

"Probation….I guess some things stay with you forever," Ty moaned. "I can't complain, tough, it could have been a lot worse."

"Yes, it certainly could have been, but it might interest you to know that the special vote we took this morning concerning your situation and the matter of dealing with Mr. Nolan went unanimously in your favor, excepting for Nolan's own vote, of course. The board agrees that your passion for what you think is right and your willingness to back up your beliefs is a valuable asset that cannot be taught. A few members did have concerns as to whether or not you can control your temper, but when they learned of the circumstances and heard several testimonies in support of your character, well, that is where the probation comes in, to give you the chance to prove you can control your emotions well enough to not be any threat to the staff or clients at the clinic. They believe in you, Ty! That left Gary Nolan's father without much leverage to protest. The probation is merely a legal safety net to deal with putting the insurance companies and a couple of investors at ease. Truth be known, those rich '_city slickers'_ admired you for being the _rugged cowboy_ they expected to find when they came out of the city hoping to discover the 'Wild, Wild West'," she laughed with a comforting wink and sparkle from the deep blue eyes everyone who knew her admired as she swatted the newly reinstated Dr. Borden on the shoulder, "It seems you have the beginnings of a fan club all your own, _aanndd,_ you may quite possibly be on your way to being our very own legend in the making," she said with delight at seeing Ty's embarrassment from her teasing him.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Ty accepted a warm hug from his new hero and protector from ruin. "Thank you, Lisa! You just saved my career, everything I have been working so hard to make something of myself for…, uhh, for everybody, I guess, for all of these years! Umm, you said there were testimonies…, about _me_?"

"Don't thank me!" Lisa deferred, "You earned that diploma, and the support from friends you need to remember who are in your corner. Jack told them his story from the beginning, since he first met you, and had plenty to say, surprisingly for him, and I told them how I felt about the man you have become, and Sally Bell's niece told them about the time you stood up for her Aunt Sally and how she regarded you as her '_Honorary Grandson_!' Her story showed that it is your natural character to stand up for whoever needs your help, and it got to all of us! I had never heard that story until today," as she reached out and hugged him again. "I loved the story of you and Amy '_springing_' Mrs. Bell out of the retirement home for a day, and actually bringing Sugarfoot to the home to visit her! But, the clincher for you was when your friend, Ally, testified that she had gone on a date with Gary Nolan not long after she arrived in Hudson. She met him at a welcome party his parents hosted at their ranch for the new staff who had moved to the area, and he asked her out. Ty, she told the board that he did the same thing to her as the other girls, so there was no doubt as to his intentions or to his less than honorable character. In fact, I expect we will be getting a letter of resignation Mr. Nolan soon! He won't be bothering you anymore. Just go ahead and do the best you can to show, umm, _everybody…," _she smiled thinking of how he hesitated to admit he did it because of his feelings for Amy, "who supported you that their faith was well placed. You will be fine, I know it! Although….I wouldn't punch anyone else for a while, if I were you!"

* * *

Lou flipped through the pages of a two month old People magazine while trying to pass the time waiting for her sister to regain consciousness. The nurse had come into the waiting room a few minutes before one o'clock in the afternoon to tell her she could go into Amy's room, shortly after she had sent her father home from his six hour watch. She suspected the reason they waited until she had arrived to let anyone into the ICU to see Amy was because of the incident around six am when the determined father tried to sneak into his daughter's room to see for himself how she was recovering. The nurses also had overheard some of his outburst in the hallway the evening before and Lou wouldn't have blamed them for holding a bit of a grudge against the rowdy cowboy.

Amy moved her fingers and toes in her sleep and sometimes Lou could hear a few faint words as if coming from a dream she was having. Although she expected to see Amy's blue eyes open every time she looked to check on her, the nurse mentioned that it could still be hours before the sedatives wore off and allowed her to wake up.

The older sister's stomach growled to remind her that she hadn't eaten since the two slices of toast she had for breakfast and later a candy bar out of the machine in the vending area. She was thinking of going to the waiting room to see if Lisa's news was good for Ty and to get Lisa to take her home. After laying the magazine on the nightstand beside the bed and bending down to kiss her little sister on the forehead, she took a few extra seconds to wonder what the operation would do to Amy and her ability to remember when she came out of the dream she was apparently experiencing at the moment. Just as she took the first step toward the door she felt Amy clutch her hand and call out in a weak voice something she couldn't understand. "Amy! Amy, do you hear me?" she half shouted. Lou reached for the button beside the bed to alert the nurse's station and moved closer to try to assure the awakening loved one that someone she knew was there with her.

Amy opened her eyes and scanned the room trying to realize her whereabouts. When she honed in on the familiar face in front of her she relaxed just a bit and settled her head on the pillow. "Amy, it's me, Lou! You're awake! Are you feeling any pain?"

The nurse rushed into the room and approached the opposite side of the bed. First she hovered over the patient to evaluate her condition and then looked at the monitors and checked the I.V. to make sure they were still functioning properly. "Amy? Amy, this is Nurse Fowler. Do you know where you are?"

Amy was calmer now and looked toward the nurse and nodded. The tears began to pool around the edges of her eyes while they darted to every corner of the room as if she were looking for something, or someone. "Amy, can you tell me if you are in any pain?" the nurse asked.

After seeming to stop and think of something she hadn't had time to notice yet, she shook her head to say she was OK. The nurse talked to her patient while taking her temperature and made a few notes on her chart hanging at the end of the bed, then said, "OK, Amy, it looks like you are doing fine! I am going to go let the doctor know you are awake. I am sure he will be pleased and will want to come and see you!" the nurse said as she reassured her patient by patting the back of her hand.

"Lou?" Amy tried to call out with a barely audible voice.

"What is it, honey? I'm right here."

"Why am I here? What happened?"

"Ok, Amy, I don't know what you remember, but you had too much pressure building up in your head and the doctors had to operate to repair that for you. You have been in surgery and you did really well. They have you all fixed up now! You are going to be fine!"

Lou could understand her sister's confusion for the moment, but it concerned her to see Amy continue to search the room and then lay back into her pillow and start to sob.

"Amy, you have to tell me what is the matter before I can help you. What's wrong? Are you hurting?" she asked. Lou knew the expression on her sister's face and the reason for her crying was for something more than physical pain. After waiting for Amy to try and explain, Lou moved closer and looked into her sister's tear filled blue eyes and said, "It's going to be OK, you know. We are all here for you and you are not alone."

Her voice was raspy as Amy asked, "He didn't come?"

"Do you mean Ty? He has been here watching over you, too, Amy, like he always does. He is in the waiting room with Lisa this very minute, and he is anxious to see you," she reassured her baby sister with a knowing smile.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

The possibility of everything in his life getting back on track again was still very new to Ty as he thought of the news Lisa brought him and tried to make sense of it all. So many events of the last few months made his existence more like a ride in the spin cycle to him than anything to do with building his career and personal life that he had planned for so long.

"Hey, there you are," Lou said to the two people she was bursting to share the good news with as she walked into the room. "Amy is awake, and she has been asking about you!" she told Ty and stood in front of her worried friend, holding out her arms waiting for a hug.

Ty raised himself out of his seat to comply with Lou's request and placed his arms around the woman who was every bit as much of a sister to him as anyone could have been, and said, "You seem to be happy with everything! How is she, Lou? She asked about me? So, she can remember?"

"It was the first thing out of her mouth, Ty! She woke up and expected to see _you_ sitting beside her, and although it took a few seconds for her to get her bearings, she began to look around the room and almost panicked when she realized you weren't there with her. I haven't had the chance to find out how much she remembers about what happened before she blacked out, but she is in as good of a shape as we could have hoped for, given the circumstances," the relieved sister said. "I think you should go to her. Just take it easy at first, you know, watch what you say because we don't know where her mind is right now. She is still groggy so don't expect to make a lot of progress tonight, but I am sure she will feel much more secure when she sees you," she coached him with the twisted grin Ty knew to be the one she used when she was satisfied that a plan of hers was coming together.

Ty had one more hug for Lou and he kissed her on the cheek as he released his embrace only to find Lisa in tears waiting for a hug of her own, "Come here," she motioned. "You have certainly had a big day today!" she celebrated by grabbing him to place a big kiss on his cheek, "Get in there, you mustn't keep her waiting!"

* * *

When he found the room he was looking for, Ty eased it open to peek inside. Amy was quietly laying on her back and looking up toward the ceiling, but her hands were covering her face and he could tell she was trying to hide the tears streaming down her cheeks. She reached for the edge of the sheet that was covering her to press it against her face and blot the tears away, but when she noticed someone standing in the door it seemed to startle her.

"I'm sorry, Amy, I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that," he apologized. "May I come in?"

Now the tears were flowing down her face which was distorted with distress. Ty was afraid she had hurt herself by moving too abruptly and rushed to the side of her bed and asked, "You OK? What is wrong, Amy? Tell me!" he pleaded.

He hesitated long enough to give her a chance to respond, but instead she covered her face again and continued to cry even harder.

The situation was getting to him quickly because he could never stand to see the single most important person that he knew to be hurting like she was at this moment. "Is it OK if I give you a hug, Amy, because I really need to do that right now?" politely smiling as he asked. He thought she looked very much like a hurt little girl as Amy reached out for him and he leaned over to gently wrap her up into his arms as tightly as he dared to hold the recovering patient. There were so many thoughts whirling inside his head that he had to slow down and process them so as not to say or do something to upset her even more than she already was. "Shhhh, I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere, OK?"

Amy nodded and continued to sob in his arms, but he could feel her relaxing more as the minutes passed. He tried to decide what to say next, but he was unsure of whether she was mad, sad, confused, or probably a little of all of them mixed together, and he had to admit to himself that having her in his arms like this for the first time in ages felt pretty damn good to him too.  
Relaxing his embrace, he eased away from her to look through the beautiful blue windows into her soul that he hoped would reveal more than words could ever say to him, like they once did. Sure enough, many of the things he needed to know were coming through to him, and it ripped his heart apart to see her so broken and frail. "I am not going to let anything bad happen to you, Amy. Do you trust me?" he asked.

Amy was struggling to keep her emotions in check, but she managed to nod and offer a shaky smile to him while gathering in return her own information through the green eyes assuring her that she would now be safe.

When she looked down and noticed Ty's right hand was still wrapped around its knuckles, Amy gently gathered it with her own two hands and told him, "I see that you still take protecting me seriously, even after everything that has happened. Lou says if you hadn't been watching over me like you were, I wouldn't be here today, and I never got a chance to properly thank you. If I asked to give a kiss the man who has proven to be my guardian angel, _again_, would that be OK?"

Ty took enough time to let his heart pick up its beat again, drawing in a long breath while he weighed the reasons he should take the safer route with the woman he knew was the one true love of his life. '_Dammit!_' he thought, '_I am not going to let all of this ruin us_!' He ever so slowly but surely moved close enough to lightly touch the tips of their noses and gently circle them together, smiling as he focused on the softening blue in her eyes, and whispered, "I thought you would never ask." The guardian angel inched toward her in slow motion and never released his gaze as he pressed into her trembling lips in a way he was sure would let her know that she was still loved and cherished. The kiss lingered with neither of them wanting to lose the moment, and it was like the wind filled a pair of empty sails and began to move their stranded ship, saving them both from perishing while lost at sea.

Ty pulled back to come up for some air, but Amy clinched both hands around his neck and pulled him back to her, "Please, just stay. I don't want you to go!"


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

Ty had left Amy after she awoke early in the morning before Tim arrived to take his turn for the day. The tired young vet worked his day shift at Scott's clinic and then went straight to the hospital again when he left work. Jack offered to help oversee Georgie who was learning to do the night check on her own and make sure that Harley and the other horses were properly cared for. After another hour at Amy's side Dr. Kaminski came into her room for his evening round visit.

'Walking the loop', as they had begun to refer to the sidewalk journey around the hospital grounds, gave the sentinels keeping watch over Amy a much needed break to take the kinks out of their backsides and to get a little fresh air for a change. As he rounded the corner at the edge of the flower garden Ty was thinking of his progress with Amy and almost walked head on into Lisa as she approached the front of the hospital.

"Penny for your thoughts?" she laughed at his far away state of mind. "How are you doing, Ty?" she asked.

"I'm OK. The doctor chased me out of Amy's room to check up on her, so I took a walk. How are you?" he returned the query.

"Oh, I am fine. I just hate the waiting. Idle time lets my mind wonder too much," she thought. "Have you eaten? Why don't we get a bite in the cafeteria, my treat."

"Treat?" he laughed. "That is what I call optimistic!"

They each picked out a decent looking sandwich and a bottle of water and found the usual table farthest away from the crowd.

"What's on your mind?" he asked, thinking his curiosity might help pass some time.

"I hope you won't be offended, Ty, but Jack shared with me the report from the Provincial Juvenile Program when they placed you at Heartland. I read the evaluation. Did you know about the report and what is says?" she asked.

"I never got to read it, but I can imagine what is in there. Those people had given up on me already. If Clint Riley hadn't decided to give Amy's mother a call to see if she would take me in at the ranch…, my life would be very different, if I were even still alive," he acknowledged. "That was the best day of my life up until then, even if I didn't know it yet."

"You were fortunate, there is no doubt, and I think you deserve to know what is in the report," she told him. "I am bringing this up because it basically says you suffered from something very similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a child, fighting to keep yourself and your mother from being harmed by irresponsible, abusive, or even violent adults. You were forced to make decisions that would allow you and your mother to survive. It was _far_ too much for any child to have to deal with, and if you think about it, you are likely still fighting those memories. Have you been dealing with this alone, with no one to help you?" she asked with concern.

"I always considered living at Heartland with Amy, Jack, and Lou, along with the rest of the family, to be my therapy. They pulled me out of the bad situation I was in. They were my first and only experience of anything resembling a family. Having those guys not turn me away when I showed up after Marion died and to watch over me like they have done since I moved there….or to help me when I didn't think I needed help and straighten me out when I got out of line….or to teach me how to respect somebody and count on them, for _everything_….has made all the difference to me." Ty's thoughts started to carry him back to the life he built there at Heartland Ranch, the life he thought he may have lost, and then realized at that very moment the newest member of the Heartland family was here beside him, listening to him and offering to help. "I miss all of them, or I should say, all of _you!_" he reminded himself of Lisa finally joining the family. I feel like I have lost my '_real'_ family, the one I was supposed to be with."

Absorbed into the young man's story as his defensive layers began to melt away, Lisa felt a connection between she and Ty much like the one she knew he shared with her husband. His opening up to her was a thrilling development in their friendship for the tender hearted woman and it only made her more determined to help him. "I know what you mean, the way the Bartlett-Fleming-Morris clan grows on you and makes you feel like you are one of them, for better or worse," she chuckled. "But have you talked to a professional who might be able to help you get the past behind you, so you can look ahead without as much anxiety and doubt?"

"I have never had any worthwhile professional help," he reasoned. "They just considered me a number on a case file and processed me to get my paperwork put onto somebody else's desk, although I recently talked to one of the doctors at UC about it a couple of times. I get why I have trouble dealing with my lack of confidence sometimes. I can see how it caused me to give up on some things too easily, like the way I just gave up on Amy when she began to be more independent. It seemed to me that she wouldn't need me anymore and it made those old feelings come back. I_ hate _the way I feel when things like that happen. I always lost out as a kid when I would try to find a reason to think _'this time everything is going to be OK',_ but it never was. I guess it broke my spirit, my belief that I had any power or ability to make things better or have any control over what happens to me, except to fight for it with my fists."

"Let me just say, Ty, that you have proven yourself to be a remarkable young man, and trust me when I say I know how all of the people at that ranch feel about you. You are already as much a part of them as anyone ever could be, and I know every one of them loves you dearly….well that is if you disregard Tim," she smirked. "In reality, he likes you too, he just needs something or someone to blame for everything that happens. He will come around again, after you get back on track with his daughter."

"Do you think there is a chance of that happening?"

"With Amy? Absolutely! If you two will talk this through and stop doubting each other, you will be fine. I know you love her, Ty, and I know she loves you too. I think you and she both know it. You two have got to find the answers to whatever causes your fears of loss. Amy has the same battles to fight with her fears as you do. Remember, she has lost a lot at an early age too. Some things we can't control, but most things, we can. I will help you any way I can, Ty, I mean it. Whatever it takes, Jack and I will see to it that you two get anything you need to fix this, OK?"

They both rose from their chairs and shared a hug that only comes from someone who you love and trust.

"I am lucky to have someone like you, Jack, and Lou looking out for me. I will do my best not to let you down," he promised.

"OK, then, Ty, why don't you go on home and get some sleep. I can stay for the night if needed. You have a job to tend to and you need to get some rest."

"I think I will stay one more night, Lisa. Amy is doing better and we have started to talk….about things. I just want to stay and make sure she is alright, you know?"

Lisa knew what he was trying to say, that he did not want to miss the opportunity to be there for her if she needed him, and said, "OK, Ty. Just start thinking about taking care of yourself too. There will be plenty of time for you two to talk when we get her home," she told him as she kissed him on the cheek and pushed through the door to head home.

* * *

Ty spent the night floundering around in the chair beside the sleeping horse whisperer who was soundly resting. Nurse Karen overlooked the regular visiting hours normally observed in the ICU and allowed the two of them to spend more time together. Karen Fowler had gotten to know the couple last year after the accident at Hillhurst which sent Amy into her care and she was a fan of the celebrity horse trainer, having four beautiful geldings stabled at her own farm. She was aware of the break up between the two, but in her opinion they belonged together and if there was a way for her to play a part in helping the couple work through a rough patch, that is what she wanted to do. As Amy's caregiver, the RN couldn't think of anyone more committed to watching over her patient than Ty.

"Hey sleepyhead," Amy said as she raked her fingers through Ty's flattened hair to wake him and see if he had in fact stayed with her all night. "I don't know, but you may look worse than I do! You need to get some real sleep before you fall over from exhaustion."

"I'm OK. It's just so unbelievably noisy in this place. You would think it would be quiet in a hospital, but there is always something going on…, beeping monitors, squeaking footsteps, doors opening, carts rattling down the hallway, and nurses coming in to check on patients. It never stops!" he complained.

"Well, if everything goes according to plan, this was the last night I have to spend here. Karen says I should be able to move into a regular room today and maybe in a couple more days I can go home. I am _soooo _looking forward to going home. It seems like forever since I slept in my own bed. Aanndd, speaking of my bed, I hear you have been kidnapped by Grandpa and have been staying in my room," she smiled at the idea of Jack arranging for Ty to stay at the ranch like he did.

"Yeah, he insisted that I stay there, until you get home, anyways."

"You don't have to leave on my account, I always feel better when you are with me," she blurted out, and then almost cringed at the realization of those days possibly being in the past and tried to recover with, "What are your plans now?"

"I think I will stay in the loft for a little while. Dr. Hartman has assured me that I can use his guest cabin for a while longer, now that things have settled down at the clinic, but I have already moved all my stuff, Harley, the old truck, and the Norton back to Heartland and I just don't see the use in moving again," he said.

Amy's heart fluttered when she heard him say he would be staying at the ranch with them…._with her_! "I want to tell you how excited I am that you got your job back!" Amy said. "You deserve to work at such a fine clinic, and it will be great for your career as one of Calgary's more prominent veterinarians," she bragged to him. "Old truck? Oh, that's right, the _new_ truck….I'm going to have to get used to the idea of seeing you driving something that starts without a prayer!" she giggled.

"Thanks, but we will just have to see how it goes. I hope everyone gives me a chance to prove myself without thinking I am some kind of hothead…, and if you behave yourself, I may just give you a ride in my nice _new_ truck when I take you home."

"I'm looking forward to it! And, it isn't like you haven't had to prove yourself before," she reminded him. "Ask me how I know!" she laughed at the memory of him as a smartass teenager on probation and hanging by a thread with the Alberta Provincial Juvenile System. "You will be fine, I know it, because of the kind of man that I know you are."

Amy smiled as she reached out to him and he got up from his chair to wrap her in his arms. The gesture from Ty was somewhat guarded, but embracing her came naturally as the barriers began to fall away and it reminded them of how good it felt to be needed by someone you love.

"Thanks, Amy, I need to hear that from someone….that I respect so much," he hesitated to go any further with his comment, not yet sure of his standing with his estranged fiancée.

Amy noticed the way he pulled back from what he was going to say and thought _'That's OK, I will show you I mean business, and I am SOOO going to win you back!_'


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

**_The young lovers watched the warm summer breeze flow gentle patterns of random swaying motion through the tall grass surrounding them. They were in a special place where they enjoyed spending much of their alone time dreaming about what lay ahead in their future. Amy was sitting with him on the old upside down boat that lay on the bank of the pond behind Heartland Ranch's horse barn. She held him with her arms wrapped around his waist while he tightly pulled her in to slowly place a soft kiss to her forehead. There was no need for conversation between them during these quiet trysts because all of the answers to every question they could ever ask were right there in the loving eyes they were gazing into. They each understood that their bond of love would follow them forever with no more doubts or fears or mistrust. It was the most comforting feeling either of them had ever known and nothing else mattered to them at that moment._**

A whinny from one of the horses jolted Ty back from the place he had been drifting in his sleep. Waking up in the cool loft of Jack's old barn at the dawn of a summer morning was Ty's idea of perfect start to any day. Being in Southwestern Alberta this time of year was a privilege, in his opinion. The landscape was covered with textures of green and gold mixed in patches of blazing yellow canola fields which rolled over and through the foothills until they disappeared at the base of the blue-grey peaks of the Canadian Rockies. His first order of business was to swing the big oak slatted loft door open to see the old upside down boat resting in its spot and to take in the view of Heartland's fields spotted with horses and cattle leisurely grazing in the tall grass. Habit caused him to look toward Amy's room at the ranch house to see if he could catch her peeking out the window trying to find out if he was awake. Just then was when he remembered today was the day he was going to bring Amy home!

"Ty? Are you up yet?" Georgie called up the stairs from the barn down below him. She was bursting with excitement over her aunt's return to the ranch and would pester everyone on the property until she found a ride to the hospital to see her.

"I'll be down in a minute, Georgie, just hold your horses!" Ty pacified the eager teenager.

"The stalls are mucked out and the horses are fed and watered. We need to get going pretty soon, don't we?" she impatiently asked. "Just making sure you didn't forget about me!"

"Like there is a chance of _that_ happening," he mumbled to himself.

After finishing all of her chores the young girl led Ty through the door into the kitchen where the two of them found Lou and Jack setting the table for breakfast. "OK, let's eat!" she said while grabbing the bowl filled with scrambled eggs.

"Slow down, Georgie! My gosh, you will choke if you keep going like that!" Lou cautioned.

"Just making sure I'm ready when we leave to go pick up Amy," she informed them.

"Yeah, I guess that would be a shame if sitting here and actually chewing your food before you swallow it caused you to be left behind," Jack teased his young sidekick.

Georgie gave the old cowboy a sideways look, to make sure he was kidding, and then scrunched her face at him when he laughed at her reaction.

* * *

Ty drove into Okotoks past the new clinic just to the west of the city limits which would be opening to the public soon. He was supposed to report for his first official day at work on Monday and he felt a few butterflies in his stomach at the thought of starting over again.

"So, that is where you are going to be working with the 'high dollar' horses?" Georgie asked as she noticed him looking at the gleaming new facility.

"Yup, I will be in there somewhere," he answered.

"Cool! It is good to know that if anything ever happened to Spartan or Phoenix or Harley, or, if it ever happens to any other horse, you guys can fix them!"

"We will be able to fix them, alright, but before you get your hopes up, those operations are very expensive, so, not just everybody will be able to pay for getting their horses an operation like they can do in that clinic," he tried to explain.

"That sucks, a little, but I guess it is nice that an expensive horse could be saved instead of being put down, but if something happened to Phoenix, I would still want to get him a new bone if his was broken," she reasoned.

"The best thing for you to do, Georgie, is to take care of him and not let him break his leg in the first place! Then you won't have to worry about it. You would be mucking out stalls for the rest of your life to pay for something like that."

The young cowgirl studied Ty's face to see if he was messing with her, but discovered he was looking at her in a serious manner and it gave her pause and think about some of the risky maneuvers she had put her horse through just for the thrill of it.

"Maybe I need to be a little more careful," she conceded.

"Good idea!" he said as he nodded his approval at the daredevil teenagers understanding of the suggestion. Her taking his hint to be more careful while riding in Heartland's six hundred acres of paradise for a horse crazy little girl was at least a small comfort to him and the others who worried about her lack of fear toward such things.

* * *

Georgie reached Amy's room several steps in front of Ty who was hurrying to keep up with his young companion. When she walked inside she discovered her aunt already dressed and sitting in the chair beside her bed impatiently waiting for her ride to the ranch to arrive. She was wearing the hijab scarf she once used while working in the UAE to conceal the bandage which covered the missing patch of her long golden strands of hair, and a helmet like device laid on the bed beside her. The doctor had insisted she wear it for protection of the still tender repair of her skull when she did anything that risked unwelcome contact with her head.

"Wow, I guess you _are_ ready to go!" Ty smiled when he saw her sitting there looking so much like her eager young niece he had been trying to restrain for the last couple of hours.

"Yes, I am _very_ ready," she confessed, "but I have to wait for the doctor to release me, so it is going to be a few more minutes."

"Great! Do you have everything packed?" he asked.

"Yes….Oh! I still need to get my things out of the safe….over there," the patient pointed to the wall on the other side of her bed. Amy called out the combination to Ty for the tumblers, "It's 10-14-07," and he opened the door to reach inside. He pulled out her purse, a wristwatch, and the necklace holding the engagement ring he had given her.

"Ten, fourteen, oh seven….isn't that…." Ty paused to remember the date.

"Yes, it is the day you came to Heartland," she finished his thought and flashed a broad grin at him for catching the reference.

"Cool!" Georgie barked. "So, what was it like, the first day you got to the ranch? Do you remember?" she asked Ty. "I remember _my_ first day wasn't so great," she recalled.

"I do, like it was yesterday, Georgie," he said as his mind spun back nearly eight years to the beginning of his new lease on life. "In fact, Amy was the very first person I met. She came charging up to me on horseback and nearly ran me over! That was right before she proceeded to give me a royal chewing out," he chuckled at the memory.

"Well, if he hadn't been driving like some jerk city kid I wouldn't have had to chase him down to explain what I thought about his manners around people riding beside the road," she explained to her niece who had stowed away in Jack's pickup to randomly find her own way to the ranch.

"What did he do, Amy?" the curious girl asked as she broke out in a mischievous grin.

Ty interrupted in explanation, "Amy and one of her friends were riding beside the road a ways down from the ranch as I first drove to Heartland, and I kind of swerved a little bit too close to the horses as I passed them by and honked my horn at them," Ty admitted. "I thought it was funny, at the time."

"And I was soooo mad at him!" Amy smiled at the recollection.

"I'll tell you what, Georgie, it didn't take her long to square me away with regard to how I would drive from then on," he shook his head and chuckled.

* * *

Amy sat in the passenger seat of Ty's brand new GMC for the first time and enjoyed all of the comforts of the much more modern vehicle. "I love your old truck, but this is really nice," she said.

"Yeah, and there is plenty of room for me too!" Georgie spoke up.

"I needed something a bit more reliable for when I have to go out on calls, but I intend to keep the old truck and fix it up someday," he said.

Forty minutes was all it took to ease his fragile passenger down the driveway under the welcoming Heartland Ranch sign and to the front of the ranch house. Lou was the first one out the door with Jack and Lisa close behind. Ty grimaced when he saw Tim following behind them, hoping he would for once act like a grown up and not look for a way to cause a needless disagreement of some sort. Ty killed the engine and rushed around to help Amy out of her seat.

"I'm not helpless, you know," she reminded him.

"No, you're not! Just consider this as my being the proper gentleman that I am, by helping the lovely damsel exit her chariot," he said, trying to make her laugh.

"I don't feel very lovely right now…in fact…I…," Amy hesitated as she realized how she must look to everyone who was there to greet her.

"Don't you worry about that," Lou chimed in. "As soon as you feel like getting out of the house, we will have a spa day and we will both get a complete makeover fit for any diva!"

"Thanks, Lou, but most divas don't have an extra hole in their head! How am I supposed to hide that!" she said with a slight panic in her voice.

"I have already talked to my hairdresser. We have a plan to help you with that, so don't worry, OK?" Lou tried to comfort her self-conscious sister.

"Let's get in the house, everybody. We have a spread on the table and I, for one, am hungry," Jack eagerly announced.

Amy followed Ty into her room as he placed her duffle bag and purse on the bed. When he turned to her to see what else he could do before he went to the kitchen he caught a glimpse of the tears forming in her eyes when she tried to look away to hide them. "Amy, what's wrong?" he asked with concern.

"I must look hideous to everybody!" she whimpered and began to cry. He took a step and reached around to pull her gently into a hug. He had learned long ago that when she felt like he knew she did at that moment to just hold her and let her cry it out.

"It's going be Ok, Amy. It won't be long before you are feeling better and Lou can take you to get all gussied up," he teased. "Nobody cares about the bandage, and..., you are still beautiful….too beautiful to let something like a little patch of hair upset you."

"Thank you for saying that. I am going to need a lot of help with my confidence for a while."

"Well, it must be your lucky day, because I am just the man for the job!" he chuckled. "Let's get you settled and go get something to eat. I am starved!"


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

The dust swirled around Spartan's left front hoof as he pawed the loose dirt to try and get Amy's attention when she walked by the paddock without stopping to see him. He nodded his head and nickered at her because he thought it was unacceptable for his owner to miss a chance to rub his jaw and pat his neck while she told him how good of a boy he was, and maybe offer him a treat. "Hey, boy! Did you miss me?" she asked when she turned to smile at the impatient gelding. "I sure did miss you!" Amy carefully swung around to look back at the ranch house to see if anyone was watching, then eased toward the prized animal to offer her hand to him for the first time in what must have been weeks. "I don't have a treat for you right now, but I promise I will bring you one later, OK?" Although she was sure they wouldn't hurt her, the still recovering outpatient knew it was important to be careful around the horses. There was a helmet on her head to satisfy the doctor's wishes, as well as to calm her family's concerns, so as to lessen any risk of reinjuring the repair he had just finished. Spartan perked up and stood at attention, just like he did before Amy would place the blanket on his back before she tossed the saddle over it. "Ohhh, you must think this helmet means we are going for a ride!" she laughed at his ability to assume the positive reason she would be wearing head protection. "It won't be long, you'll see," she told him as she rubbed her palm slowly up and down his forehead and chuckled when he blinked lazily in his horse-like serenity.

Amy patted her horse on the neck one more time and then headed toward her beloved old red barn. She walked through the front door past the tack room, breathed in the familiar smells of fresh stalls, hay, and leather, and then turned the corner leading to the stairs to the loft. When she reached the top landing she took a slow breath and lightly tapped on the big oak door, "Ty? Are you in there?" She lifted her hand to knock a second time when the door swung open to reveal a sharply dressed professional looking young man standing before her. She blinked to make sure her vision was real. "Wow! Who are you, and what have you done with the guy who lives in this loft?" she smiled, eyes wide with surprise.

"The guy in the loft has to get to work, remember? Aanndd, I saw you talking to Spartan, just then. It felt good to see him, didn't it?" he asked.

"Geez, I can't get away with anything! Yeah, I miss him…, all of them."

"I know you do, Amy, but please, promise me that you won't push it, _this time_, and try to put off riding for a while longer. I don't know about you, but I have had enough of those hospital waiting rooms for a while." He lowered his gaze, looking straight into the tell-tale blue eyes for at least a hint of a confirmation to his request.

"I promise," she responded by returning his gaze and nodding to reinforce her sincerity. "I am out here because I just wanted to see you before you leave for your first day at your new job, and to wish you luck! Aanndd, oh, my, gosh, don't you look nice this morning!"

"Thank you, Amy. It's hard to believe it's finally happening! After all of the studying and trying to figure out how I was going to pay for…._practically everything, _I have a chance now to put it all to good use." He picked up his bag full of the tools of his trade and unzipped the compartment holding the stethoscope Amy had given him the morning of his first day of classes at the University of Calgary. He held it up for her to see and said, "I know I have said all of this before, but I owe everything to you and your family. I couldn't have done it without you, _all_ of you, and I will never forget it."

Amy got up on the tips of her toes and reached her arms around his neck and nearly broke down and started to cry. "We are….I am….soooo proud of you!"

Ty squeezed her a little tighter then stepped back and gave her the smile Amy loved to see on his face.

"I have to go….wouldn't want to be late on my first day!"

Amy giggled as she watched Ty bounce down the stairs like an excited little boy on Christmas morning. She pushed open the outside loft door and watched her elated sister head off Hudson's newest veterinarian at the pass and make him pose for a couple of quick pictures to commemorate the event while standing proudly beside his old blue truck. This was another one of the many memorable moments Amy shared with Ty that she knew she would always cherish and was thankful that Lou had thought to take pictures of it. The situation between the two past lovers was gradually becoming less strained, but Amy couldn't help but notice even though Ty was receptive to her affectionate behavior and was close to being like the attentive, sweet young man who made her fall so much in love, he was holding back a part of himself, and that bond was something she had every intention to restore.

* * *

It was a perfect morning drive to work through the sunny foothills countryside. The long anticipated day had Ty's heart rate increasing its rhythm with each corner he came closer to turning his faithful old truck into the driveway of the place he hoped to launch his hard earned professional career. The clinic's landscape was relaxing yet, at the same time, inspiring as he maneuvered along the freshly manicured road that guided him to his parking place at the side of the new building. He ignored the tinny rattle when he closed the door on his vintage truck and then he heard the mellow rumble of Ally's Corvette pulling into the next spot on the right.

He walked around the front of his truck and greeted her as she climbed out of the perfectly polished sports car. "Good morning!"

"Hey, Ty, great to have you back! Good morning to you too!"

"Listen, Ally, I haven't had the chance to tell you….I want to thank you for what you did for me at the board meeting. It took a lot of courage for you to tell them your story. I am forever grateful to you and I just needed to tell you how much it meant to me…, and Amy, for you to do that for us both."

"If there is one thing that I have learned while living out here in Alberta, it is that people take care of each other. But, I had to do it, Ty, for myself as much as anyone else," she confided to him. "Amy….How is she? Is she recovering like she should?" she asked.

"She is much better, thank you for asking, but the family has their hands full trying to keep her away from the barn," he laughed.

"I'll bet they _do_ have their hands full," she agreed, smiling as she shielded her eyes from the early morning sunrise. Aanndd, what about you guys? Have you two made any progress working past the rift you had going?" she asked with a mischievous grin.

"I guess you could say things are calming down a bit, but I am letting Amy work everything out in her own time. She needs to let herself heal, first of all, and I am there at the ranch to help if she needs me, but this time it has to be her idea to move forward, if that is really what she wants to do," he confided in his friend, and once again, colleague.

"You can take it from a girl who knows what she has seen between you two, Ty, that girl loves you," Ally told him. She will come around, just be patient."

"That is my intention, at least," he said. "Speaking of being patient, whatever happened with your fiancé coming out here to the wild, wild, west? Did he decide he was a cowboy after all?"

"Nope," Ally replied with an exaggerated pop from her lips to emphasize the finality of the situation. "He was no cowboy, that's for sure. The first week he was curious, I mean, he asked a million questions about how people live out here, what there is to do, and so forth, but he was on a plane back to Michigan by Wednesday of the next week. He decided that he didn't want a '_Home on the range'_, as he put it." Ally took a breath and decided to change the direction of the conversation, "So, this is the famous _all original_ '57 GMC pick-'em-up truck, huh?" She began to walk around the rolling piece of history to get a better look. "That is one cool truck, Ty, but why didn't you drive that shiny new truck of yours, you know, to show off a little on a big day like this?" she laughed while playfully bantering with him.

"I was going to do just that, but, you know, something told me…, this truck brought me all the way here, to this point, and I thought it was the right thing to do to bring her along and share the first drive into this new part of my life. She needed to see what all of the trips between Heartland and school in Calgary and all of the hard work was for!" he said as he affectionately patted the still shiny blue hood on the less reliable old truck.

Ally looked between the odd car and truck mixed into a row of Cadillac, BMW, and various other luxury cars and wondered out loud, "What do you think all of these rich horsey people are going to think when they see two old vintage vehicles parked in amongst all of these Dr.'s cars?"

Ty thought for a second and proclaimed, "They are going to think that there are at least two cool people who work here!"

The spirited woman laughed, then remembered, "She? What is it with you guys and calling your vehicles, _she_? Should us girls be offended?" Ally took the shot at mocking her friend.

"Well, I suppose it is because we are so attracted to them and appreciate the attention they require to keep them happy. Most of us guys think our cars are special, at least they are to us, just like our girls!" he confidently offered.

"Phffft, whatever!" Ally laughed again and shook her head as she dismissed Ty's reasoning as being silly. "I'll say one thing though, Borden, you are one loyal son of a gun, all the way to the end, for the people, _and trucks_, that you care about, I'll have to give you that!"

"Some would say, to a fault, I guess. Well, it's time to get to work! I have to go by Dr. Hartman's office, first thing, and get a game plan together. And, thanks again, Ally."

"Ok, then, I will probably see you soon. I would like to say good luck again, Ty. I know you belong here at this place with the rest of us who want to do some special work with horses and I am happy to see you here," she smiled, nodded to him, and slapped him on the arm as they began to walk toward the start of a new adventure.


	14. Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

Heartland's gate was a welcome sight for the new vet as he rounded the corner at the top of the hill and curved his way down the gravel driveway to park in his spot beside the barn. He could see the horses were put up for the evening and Georgie was finishing her night check duties by sweeping the concrete floor in front of the stalls. A long, exhausting day had worn him out and the idea of laying down was the first thing on his mind, right after checking to see if Amy had been careful and had made it through the day safely.

"Hey, Ty…, or should I say _Dr. Borden_ now?" his young friend teased as she acknowledged his first day at the clinic making his title official, finally. "How did your first day at work go?"

"It was hectic, to say the least," he answered. "Today was really busy, and I'm beat. It looks like you have everything under control out here in the barn. That is a big help….Thank you, Georgie!" he told her with an approving nod of his head.

"No problem," she answered.

Amused, Dr. Borden noticed the girls' use of one of his favorite comebacks and smiled to himself. "How did Amy do today? Did she behave herself?"

"She snuck out to the barn again after lunch, but I think she took it easy. She just brought Spartan and the other horses a treat and petted and talked to them for a while, then she went for a walk all the way to the dude ranch and back." the girl spy reported.

"OK, that's good! She needs to get out like that, without being on horseback!" Ty said with relief.

The hungry teen walked out the door headed toward the kitchen and Lou's reward for a job well done with the horses." Com'on, Mom has a surprise for you in the house, but you didn't hear that from me," she smiled at offering the heads up.

"Of course she does!" Ty realized, thinking of Lou always looking for an excuse to celebrate any event. But today _was_ a special occasion. After all of the support the family had given him over the years helping him fight against the odds to find his place in the world, and to finally succeed, today he had found his place as a _real doctor_ and it was his time to shine with the people he loved the most. He also happened to notice a few extra cars parked on the other side of the house.

* * *

"Surprise!" they all shouted in unison when Ty came through the door. Everyone in the family was there along with a few of his closest friends to celebrate his big milestone. The excitement and pride shining in the faces of the people he wanted most to please made the new doctor of veterinary medicine realize how much they all appreciated his efforts to keep on trying even though there were times when he didn't think he could go even one more day. His throat tightened and the moistening of his humble green eyes became evident to all of the well-wishers. Lou was the first one to approach him with open arms and a huge smile, taking him into a hug before she placed her palms on both sides of his face and said, "I am so proud of you, Ty, we all are! Congratulations, you deserve this day!" Katie grabbed his leg in her normal giggly fashion and looked up at her 'Uncle Ty' and proclaimed "You did _good_!" causing everyone to burst out in laughter.

Each of the family came to him to express their joy for his success and the promising launch of his new career, and life.

Tim dawdled in front of the honoree for the evening and Ty could see his conflicted train of thought trying to make its way from his brain to his mouth without going off the rails. Struggling with what he wanted to say to him, a convincing grin broke across the cowboys face and he reached toward the younger man to offer a heartfelt handshake. "Congratulations, Ty….I have to admit that I had my doubts, whether or not you were over your head with what it took to make it to graduation from vet school, but you proved yourself to be an amazing young man worthy of the faith and love this family has for you. Well done, son!" she said with a slap on the shoulder from his free hand. "Good luck to ya!"

Nearly in shock from Tim's evasion of unnecessary drama and believably sincere kind words, Ty was still aware that his biggest supporter for so many years conspicuously stayed in the back of the room permitting the other guests and family to have their chance to speak to him. After each of them had finished with their handshakes, hugs, and good luck wishes an unusually subdued Amy came forward and looked into his eyes with a teary yet beaming smile and wrapped him in a long, warm embrace. Without saying a single word she placed a soft kiss on his face and gently rubbed the light pink 'Petal Rebel' lipstick Lou had helped her pick out for the occasion off his cheek with the tips of her fingers.

Lou spoke up and directed the crowd to the feast she had so beautifully prepared. "OK everybody, let's take our seats at the table and start with dinner!"

Ty stood at the far end of the dining area and waited for everyone to settle in their seats, and for the first time without prodding from Lou, he offered to speak to them all. "Thank you, Lou, and everyone here tonight. I will always remember this celebration and the way you all have made me feel like I belong with your family," he respectfully told them. "It has been that way now for…, well, since the beginning of the first real life I have ever known. That was the day I came here to live with this family. It was no less of a windfall to me than winning one of those huge lotteries. Having you all support me and give me a chance to see what I could make out of myself was wealth beyond anything money could ever buy. None of the wonderful things I have experienced would have been possible if I hadn't come here and it means more than I can even say to know I have people who care about me so much. Thank you, to every one of you!"

"Ty, I hope you know by now that you _are_ a member of this family?" Jack asserted. "You have more than earned your right to make your life right here with us. We all love you, and I hope you truly feel that way about us too." Ty smiled and reached to shake the elder man's hand prompting the others to raise their glasses and toast the student and his teacher in matters of living his life to the fullest, and for the memorable moment, the kind that brought tears of joy to everyone sitting there around the table.

The meal was a particularly warm fellowship, much like a Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner that had everyone's heart so full of being thankful and happy. Ty sat with Amy beside him and he noticed her continuing reserved behavior. It struck him as rather odd since she had as much or more to do with his desire to prove himself worthy of the family's trust as anyone. He wondered why she did not seem to want to celebrate his big day with the rest of the family.

* * *

Ty stood between Jack and Lou, waving to the last of the guests making their way up the driveway toward the road leading them home. He pulled his honorary sister into a hug and said, "Thanks again, Lou. This is one surprise party that I will always remember."

"It was my pleasure, Ty. We have been soooo excited to see you finish with school and to get a good start with your career. Maybe things will be easier for you now, living without so much sacrifice on your part."

"Easier would be good!" he laughed to them. "I have to say that I am very happy to be where I am right now, but it has been a journey, that's for sure."

Jack slapped him on the shoulder and said, "Congratulations again, Ty. I think I am going to call it a day. Too much excitement….goodnight," he said as he opened the screen door and disappeared inside.

The quiet that Heartland always offered on warm summer evenings came over the two left standing there in the dark. "Can I ask you something, now that we are alone?" Ty asked as he swept his eyes around them to see if it was safe to ask Lou such a personal question. "Is Amy OK? She seems awfully down tonight. She hardly spoke to anyone, even me!"

Lou took the question and mulled it in her head for a few seconds, deciding how far to take the explanation, then replied, "I think she is feeling OK, but I know all of this changing in your lives, her trying to recover from another injury, unsure of how you think of her now as a friend, and hopefully more, and you moving on to the next stage of your life…, it has her a bit unsettled. You know she is self-conscious about her appearance. The hair piece helped to hide the surgery until her hair grows back, but she feels especially vulnerable right now, like she finally realized that many of the good things she loves could be slipping away from her. She has been asking me questions, a lot of them about your relationship together. I think she is looking for a way to get a clear picture of where she has been and where she needs to go from here forward. And frankly, Ty, I really believe she is scared to death that she may have lost what you two had with each other…, the friendship…, and being together as a couple."

Ty absorbed Lou's heartfelt opinions to try and figure out where that left him with the horsey girl he had loved now for nearly one third of his life. "Maybe….I hope she can get back on track soon. I really hate seeing her so unsure of herself. I wish there was something more I could do to help her, but I have no idea what she needs right now. What else I can do?" he wondered. "By the way, have you seen her in the last half hour or so? I haven't."

"No, as a matter of fact, I haven't seen her since people started to leave. But, Ty, you are doing exactly what she needs you to do. Just be patient with her, she will get everything figured out, I know it." Lou advised. "Just don't give up, OK?"

"I suppose you are right, Lou. Thanks, for the talk. I am really beat tonight, so I think I am going to hit the hay. Goodnight."

* * *

Gravel crunched under Ty's boots in the silence of the open space approaching the barn. As he made the last step at the top of the stairs leading to his loft he hesitated when he saw the door slightly ajar. He pushed it open a little farther and peeked around to see inside his room and found that Amy was sitting on the edge of his bed looking deep in thought.

"Hey, are you OK?" he asked as he walked beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "We missed you."

"I am so proud of you, Ty. You did it! You made your way through school, all on your own, made excellent grades, and now you are on your way to becoming one of the finest veterinarians we have in the area, and eventually, anywhere."

"Thank you, Amy. It means more to me to hear that from you….than from anyone. You are the reason for all of the good things that are happening to me now, you know that, don't you?"

"Come on, Ty, give yourself the credit you deserve. Even when you got knocked down, you picked yourself back up and kept on trying, and you made it! I admire you for that and I wish I could be more like you. You are something else _Dr. Borden_!" she said with a visibly serious tone.

Ty wanted to wrap the fragile love of his life up in his arms to comfort her but he knew this was her shot at taking the next step in her recovery from a string of devastating events and that she needed to let it all go. He watched as the bottom fell out of Amy's heart and everything it held inside was finally ready to spill out of her as she fought to maintain the ability to tell him what she came to say. "Ty, I know you loved me, but…, you have made a new life yourself and it looks like you are happy with the way things are going. It is good to see that you have everything you have worked so hard to accomplish coming back to you now. I have never met anyone who deserves that more than you," she paused to collect her thoughts and then continued, "I heard Ally's fiancé went back where he came from, that he left her here." Amy looked straight into the green looking glass of his mind and said, "I know you like her a lot, and I don't blame you for that. She is beautiful, funny, she is a doctor, like you are now, and apparently very brave after what she did for you and me at the board meeting. I couldn't blame you if you wanted to move on, with her."

Amy reached for the chain around her neck and choked back the tears as she pulled the necklace from under her shirt to take Ty's engagement ring in her hand. She then turned her back to him and asked, "Would you undo the clasp for me?"

"Sure, but Amy…" he said while reaching up to work the mechanism to release it, unsure of her intentions.

Amy spun back around to face the man she loved and needed most, sighed, and told him, "Ty, I have worn this ring every day since you came back home from Europe without me. I was hurt and angry at first, then terrified that I had lost the most extraordinary man I will ever know from my life. I was devastated when you left and I expected at any time that you would ask me for this ring, but having it with me somehow gave me a reason to hope that we weren't finished yet."

Amy's trembling fingers reached to gather Ty's right hand into them and she turned his palm up to place the ring on its lifeline. "I need you to know that I love you, and I wish more than anything that you still felt the same way about me. I want more than anything to share my life with you, to be your wife, to have you as my husband, and have a family together, but I don't want either of us to keep dealing with what we have been going through any longer." Amy set her intense blue gaze into the green eyes that have captivated her dreams since the day of his arrival, and then she came to the point, "I have dreaded the day you would ask for this ring and make everything between us final, but, Ty, it is yours, and you need to decide what you want to do with it."


	15. Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

It seemed like another lifetime ago when the first sensation he felt in the morning was the light brushing of Amy's hair tickling against the tip of his nose. As his brain regenerated itself into being fully aware of its surroundings, Ty realized that his dream was in fact real and that his girl was actually lying in his arms beside him. He had apparently fallen asleep at the end of the life changing conversation they were having just hours before and Amy must have gotten one of the spare quilts to cover him and then decided to stay in the loft instead of going back to her room. The realization that he should check the time occurred like a jolt, 5:02 am…., good, he wasn't late and didn't have to rush! It was his second day on the new job and he was scheduled to meet a team of doctors at a stable just up the road in Hudson at 9:00 am, so he was fine with the time, but he had to be aware of it even if he wanted to stay right where he was for the rest of the day.

His left hand caressed her across the silky skin of her belly and the gentle cadence of her sleeping so deeply was amazing, especially after Lou had confided in him that Amy was having nightmares every single night and could never sleep all the way through until morning.

He relaxed and let the long conversation with his previously estranged fiancée sort itself out in his mind. After finally releasing all of her feelings she had been holding inside and pouring them out to him in such a completely honest and open conversation, he was sure that everything she told him was straight from her heart. He understood the thought she had put into her situation and had apparently been thinking a great deal regarding what to do with her future and what she wanted for the two of them. He now believed the unseen barrier between them was finally coming down.

* * *

_Six hours earlier… _

* * *

Having had such a scrambled and extended first day at the clinic and then continuing with two and a half hours at Lou's celebration in his honor, Ty was left exhausted before he discovered Amy waiting for him in his loft, but when Amy placed the engagement ring in his hand the intensity of their conversation had given him a second wind.

He stood and pulled her up close to him so their eyes were linked in no uncertain terms. "No! Amy, we don't end like this! The reason I never asked for this ring back was because I felt the same way as you told me you did! As long as you had it, we weren't finished yet, that somehow there was hope…, and there _is_ hope for us! Look at what has happened to us since we have been apart! I can't be happy even with all of the good things going on for me right now because I always feel like I am missing the most important part! I should be sharing them all with _you_! That is what I have always wanted, Amy, to share everything with _you_!" he confessed. "You are the one that matters to me and without having you here, I just…," he paused to try and think of the words that would tell her what he needed for her to hear.

Amy gently placed her fingertips over his lips and moved them along his cheek as she shook her head to interrupt and softly say to him, "But, look at me, Ty! I _am_ here with you!" she pointed out. "This is where I want to be, right now and always, with you! I am so, so sorry that I took what we had together for granted. I underestimated how unstable things were between us, and I know now that I should have done so many things differently," she admitted to him with tears welling up and tracing the curve of her cheeks down to her chin. She took her right hand and patted his chest above his heart with a slow rhythm for emphasis as she spoke, "I regret my decisions from before. I thought I had lost you and, I knew from our past arguments that I wouldn't be the same without you, but, I never actually considered what would happen to me and what it would be like for me if I had _really_ lost you. I had no idea how much it would hurt me to think that I had ruined everything between us and that you could be gone forever! You were always just….there for me, when I needed you to be."

Ty shifted his hold on his first true friend and lover, gripping her tightly at her waist, feeling like he should say something to her like he always would have in moments like this, but he saw the spark in her nervous yet determined blue eyes and it made him stop to listen when she continued.

"I know how to fix everything between us, Ty, that is, if you still want that, and I think you do. I have had a lot of time to think about what I want to do with my life from now on, and I have been missing the most important thing about it. Let me ask you a question….What is the first thing you are told by the people you respect the most about why our relationship suffered?"

After thinking for a few seconds, "Well, if I have heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times, that we both have been unable to completely let ourselves go, to trust without condition, and most of all, to allow ourselves to believe that it is OK for good things to happen to people like us. That is the killer, I think. We both had terrible things to deal with at a young age and that caused us to expect for other things to fail in our lives as well. I have thought about this a lot, Amy, and I have made some progress, I think. Good things _do_ happen to people like us, and I have decided to expect the best, not the worst like I always did before."

"Exactly! Me too!" she enthusiastically nodded in agreement. "I have decided the same thing myself, and that is why I said I think we can fix what is wrong with us. We are _good_ together, and as corny as it sounds, we _do_ make a good team. The best things always come to us when we work together."

Ty settled back against his pillows and said, "So, tell me, what you are thinking?"

Amy spent the next half hour expanding on everything she had been keeping to herself, the conclusions she had made about answers to her questions she had asked Lou and Lisa, the cause and effect of the decisions she made in the past, and asking more questions of Ty.

When she was finished, Ty took his best shot and said, "Amy, there are several ways we could do this," he took a couple of seconds in an attempt to decide if he was ready to go through with the plan he going to use when the opportunity presented itself, but then decided to take another gamble, put it all on the line, and make his point. "This is what is going to happen….We both still love each other and neither of us is happy being separated like this. The way we have handled this whole thing is…._it's just crazy_! I got this ring for _you_, nobody else," he told her while holding the ring in front of her glistening eyes, and continued, "You are the one I want, the one I need, the one I love, Amy. Sure, I could move on, and so could you, but we both know that no one else is ever going to replace the other, or make our lives any easier, because the thing that holds both of us back..., is _ourselves_! I'm done with all of that, just like I was done letting my resentment of Wade and my mom hold me back. You tried to convince me that maybe he had changed for the better, and it turned out that you were right, but as long as I resisted a new way of thinking about him nothing was ever going to get better for any of us! You saw the difference that it made for me when I let all of that go and made my peace with Wade! He and Mom have a decent life now, and when the resentment was gone…, it was like I was free of this burden that I had been carrying around on my back and it felt great to be rid of it! I was able to move on, and never look back!" He sat down and drew Amy close in front of him on the side of the bed.

"What we let happen to us is no different, really." He inhaled deeply and redirected the focus to the relationship at hand, "It is us, Amy, just us. We _can_ control the things that are manageable…, and what happens to us in life, we will deal with it as well as we can. We will be happy when we let go of all of our misgivings and doubt. They are the things that we allowed to steal our happiness away!"

Ty touched the tips of his fingers under her chin to wipe away the tears collecting there and then made sure to direct her attention to the jade passageways into his soul as he placed everything he had on the line, going for broke. "If you are sure of what you want, for us to work, I can tell you that I am," again taking the ring and holding it up to her misty gaze, "then let me put this ring where it has always belonged, let's stop running away from what is ours, what we have earned, and let's get serious about _us_! Will you still marry me?"

Ty knew his gamble had paid off when his rejuvenated fiancée threw her arms around his neck and held him so tightly that he was beginning to believe she might make him pass out. He was nearly ready to try and get loose when Amy realized she forgot to offer her hand in order for him to slip the ring on her shaking finger.

That is when Ty let himself rest against his pillows again, curling his arm under Amy as she put her head on his chest and just lay still, listening to his heart trying to settle back into its normal beat. It was no more than ten minutes and Ty was gone, sleeping soundly with nothing left to gather from this day but the dream he would take with him to the following morning.

When she knew that Ty was out for the night, Amy slipped out from beside him and found the stack of quilts that Lou always kept on the shelf in his closet so he could stay warm in the drafty loft. She spread one of them over him as he lay on top of the covers on the bed, not wanting to wake him, and stood there watching him for a while before she decided that she wouldn't leave him now, or ever again, and crawled under the quilt and curled herself tightly against him, ready for her own dreams to take her away.


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

* * *

Three years later

* * *

Early morning walks across the meticulously well maintained lawns of the Fairfield Stables complex had always been Lisa Stillman-Bartlett's favorite way to start the day. Activity here at her ranch had increased a great deal recently and there were always new horses coming to the facility now that her step-grandson, Dr. Borden, had the new campus up and running here at the stables. Dr. Hartman and the board of directors of the now immensely popular high tech equestrian clinic outside of Okotoks decided there needed to be a rehab facility used in collaboration with the University of Calgary where the horses receiving treatment could be more closely monitored and data collected to verify the long term success of the newer experimental surgeries and healing strategies. Included in those new strategies was an encouraging new study regarding Amy's preferred natural remedies and practices as a supporting method of post op care.

After successfully fulfilling his obligations to the probation agreement at the clinic and gaining the respect of the staff for his work ethic and ability to innovate the new technologies, Ty was selected to head up the department and oversee the operation for Lisa and his wife, Amy Fleming-Borden, who was now the acting CEO of Fairfield Stables International.

Amy worked closely with her step-grandmother who lived jointly with she and Ty at the beautiful white colonial estate here at the stables and at the rustic Heartland Ranch house with her stubborn old cowboy for a husband, Jack, who refused to leave his heritage for more than a few days a month to stay at the much more accommodating house at Fairfield. She had managed, however, to convince him to come with her on business trips to Europe at least once a year by making the 'authentic' cowboy more involved in the business of buying and selling her horses. As luck would have it, Jack was a hit with his wife's upper crust clients in Europe. They loved to hear the stories of his rodeo days, singing in the western band when he was young, tales of three day cattle drives across the prairies and foothills, and his take on life on the ranch back in Alberta. The arrangement meant she could make her usual rounds to keep up her clients and breeding contacts, splitting the bi-annual duties with Amy and Ty who would go overseas in the winter when things slowed down with the clinic work.

* * *

"Good morning!" Lisa cheerfully greeted Amy who walked across the lush green grass to the rail fence where she watched a pair of brand new thoroughbred foals learn the use of their extraordinary legs for the first time, running in short bursts away from their mothers and back again. "Look at 'em! Aren't they something?" the older woman said, still in awe of the beauty she learned to appreciate when she was a young girl visiting here with her parents while they still lived in the city.

"They sure are! It has been a good year for our stock," Amy filled in her mentor as she handed her an insulated cup filled with fresh hot coffee. "The other three are due to foal any day now. Ty checked in on them yesterday and said they looked fine."

They both leaned against the railing of the fence to watch in silence for several minutes with only the comical nickering of the foals darting about, together, and then apart, and then together again until Amy drifted back from her thoughts and said, "You know, this is it! This is…, perfect! _This_ is what I dreamed about when I was little, being in such a beautiful place as this and having all of these magnificent animals to work with, having my family all around me, having so many people to love, and finally having a guy like Ty…. I love to watch him at peace and doing so well here…," she paused in a blissful whirl and breathed in the fresh morning air, looking at her friend with a twinkling her eyes to relish the moment.

Lisa smiled at her protégé and interrupted, "Speaking of Dr. Borden…," Lisa nodded her head toward to the path leading to the new barn on the far side of the main complex and the old blue truck winding its way along the driveway lined with trees and brilliant white railed fences, "You two look the happiest I have ever seen you! Your Grandfather and I are _so_ pleased to see you both this relaxed and confident with each other and doing so well with your careers now."

"Well, that is no small thanks to you and Grandpa! We should thank you both every day for not giving up on either of us. I know we could not have made it to where we are now without you."

Lisa lifted her chin up in thought, readying herself to pose a question to the younger woman, "Does he know?" looking at Amy with raised eyebrows and a curious grin.

"Know? W-What do you mean?" Amy asked, taken off guard with the out of the blue question.

"C'mon, Amy, you don't even have to say anything for me to see it. Have you told him yet?"

Amy was taken aback at the perceptiveness of the older woman and stuttered for an answer, "H-How did you know, so soon?"

"I know you well enough to know when something is going on. I have heard you in the mornings rushing into bathroom lately, again this morning with the upset stomach, and there is just something about the look of an excited new mother plotting ways to tell her husband for the first time that he is going to be a father that is hard to hide!"

"I just took the test yesterday…, to be sure," the amazed mother to be confessed. "I actually planned to tell him today, when things calm down a bit around here this afternoon."

Ty drove his old blue GMC to a stop and opened the door, having to give it a bump with his left shoulder to jar it loose because it hadn't been used in a while, and walk up to two of his favorite people who were obviously enjoying the beautiful morning. "Watching the babies, I see."

"Look at 'em Ty, aren't they amazing?" Amy said as she hooked her free arm around his waist and squeezed him into a hug. "These little guys are lucky to have such a nice place to be born and raised, don't you think?" she tested the waters.

"I couldn't think of any place better!" he supposed.

"What's the occasion?" Amy asked as she nodded toward the old truck.

"I had to put a new battery in her to get her cranked up, it's been a while since I've had her out, and since it is such a pretty day, I thought she would like to go for a drive," he smiled at the idea of spending time behind the wheel of his prized old truck that brought him here, into his new life.

He took a sip from the coffee cup she offered to him and said, "I need to borrow you for a while, can you come with me for a bit?"

Amy turned to look at Lisa who raised her hands to shoo her into going with her husband, "Go on, I think I can still handle whatever might come up while you are off with this good lookin' guy wanting to take you away for a while!" she laughed at them and gave Amy a wink.

On the way to the main road Amy scooted to the center of the seat and leaned into the driver and asked, "You thought '_she_' needed to go on a drive, did you?"

Ty didn't say anything back to her, just offering his trademark grin, then asked her, "Do you think you can still shift her, like you used to?"

Amy giggled as the driver pushed in the clutch and she pulled the lever back into first gear when they approached the end of the driveway. "Yeah, I still got it!"

They drove all the way to Heartland on the back roads that Ty used when he gave Amy her first driving lessons. The drivers' helper never missed a shift, unlike the old days when the truck dreaded the earlier sessions of grinding between gear changes.

"I guess I was a pretty good teacher, after all!" he teased his especially giddy wife.

* * *

They parked in front of the old red barn where the once troubled sixteen year old kid, on his last chance of probation, had made his home for so many years. The place and people here had taught him that life was something to be treasured and lived with anticipation of things that are good, not the dread and fear of his youth.

Ty playfully grabbed Amy around the waist and pulled his sweetheart out of his side of the truck causing her to giggle and squeal in laughter as he tickled her ribs. Behind them, they both heard someone clearing his throat and they jerked their heads around to see her grandpa and Caleb, his new ranch foreman, walking out the barn's front door to greet them.

"Grandpa!" Amy said, trying to regain some of her lost composure.

"You would think they would be over that by now," Caleb mentioned to his boss, with a shrug of his shoulders and look of admiration in his eyes.

"There was a time that I would have had to do some very unpleasant things to you, if I'd caught you doing something like that back when I first laid out the ground rules to you!" Jack told the blushing vet with a chuckle.

The doting grandpa just nodded to the envious cowboy and grinned to himself, pleased to see his granddaughter and her husband so happy.

"Did Ty tell you why you are here?" Jack asked her.

"Why, is there a particular reason for us to be here? I just thought we were here on a joyride," she told him.

"Well, actually, Amy, we have some news," Ty told his now curious wife. "Jack and Lou are proposing an idea to make Heartland into a working ranch for kids, you know, like me when I came here. Clint Riley is the one who had the idea. He mentioned it to me when I ran into him at Maggie's the other day. We can continue to work with the horses that need help and to be rehomed, just like you used to do, raise some fine cattle, and give some of those kids a sense of purpose and a chance to learn how to belong somewhere, with a _family!_"

Amy's older sister approached the group, coming from the house, and joined the conversation, "I have looked into the legalities, and so forth. We will be able to get considerable funding for the project, given our track record, and all we need to make the idea into a reality is for you to agree to it, with the rest of the family. What do you think?"

"I think that is an awesome idea, Lou, but who is going to watch over the kids? You have the dude ranch, Maggie's, _your family_!"

"That's what _I_ am here for," offered Caleb. "My rodeo days are finished after I broke my collarbone again last fall. I still have my business selling rough stock to the rodeo circuit, but I could use something steadier, and I think this is a good way to do something useful with my life, for a change."

Amy pursed her lips and tried to imagine the carefree rodeo cowboy herding delinquents instead of cattle or horses. "Do you think you can handle a bunch of kids like Ty, in his bratty teenager stage, or Mallory, if she had been mistreated and mad at the world and looking for revenge?" she asked, amused by the picture in her head, then cringed at the potential disasters.

"The way I see it, it's kinda like learning not to drown," the philosopher of life on the ranch professed to them, "You are pretty sure you can do it, but don't know for sure until someone throws you in the deep end and it's either sink, or swim! Besides, Lisa says she will hang around and watch over the operation until I get my bearings straight."

"OK, then," chuckling at the reasoning of her longtime friend, "that sounds great to me! Let's do it!" Amy threw her hat into the ring with the others. "Mom would be so proud of all of us, I think!"

Agreeing to meet Clint to get the project rolling was a big turning point in the history of the ranch called 'Heartland'. A new legacy would be built on the 600 acres Jack and the rest of the family called home. The Bartlett-Fleming-Morris-Borden clan was glad to see the ranch put to such good use and the idea of so many potential new 'extended' family members was exciting to them.

"I am going to take the 'Head Cow Punch' here and go into town to pick up our order at the feed store. We'll talk about all of this later," Jack said as he headed toward his old truck, cranking his neck around to see if Caleb took the hint to follow him.

"I have to go to Maggie's myself, and take care of some paperwork," Lou said. "I suppose I can leave the two of you here alone without worrying about your getting into any trouble?" she teased them through her knowing smile.

"I think we will be fine, Sis," wondering if Lisa had already called her sister to fill her in on the big news.

They stood there together waving to Lou as the last of the ranch's other human inhabitants rolled up the hill to the Heartland Ranch main gate. "Com'on," Amy commanded her husband with a glint in her eye.

"Where are you going?" Ty asked, having a pretty good idea as to her intentions.

"Just com'on," she smiled while reaching out to him.

Ty took hold of her hand and let his frolicsome wife lead him into the barn and up the wooden stairs to his old loft apartment.

Amy skipped to the large oak door on the back side of the room and swung it open to take in the view overlooking the pond with a few of the horses roaming in the pasture beyond it, then turned to Ty like a little girl who was bursting to tell a secret.

"What is up with you?" he laughed at the woman who was now the perfect picture of the pretty and spirited fifteen year old cowgirl he fell in love with all those years ago here at the ranch.

Ty carefully assessed his wife who was walking to him, careful and deliberate, beaming to the point of not being able to hold back the excitement any longer. The intensity of the rose color on her cheeks grew with each passing second and her glistening crystal blue eyes threatened to take his breath away, and he asked her, "Amy?"

"Do you remember telling me once that the best things that ever happened to you started right here in this room?"

"That was the day I had you open the letter from University of Calgary and you told me that I had been accepted into vet school, that's when I said that to you," he smiled at the memory.

"Yes…, and well, I think I have some news that will fit in with the good memories you have of this place," she said.

"Amy! You are killing me here!"

She had been thinking of a clever way to tell him the news, but her excitement got the best of her and she simply blurted out, "You are going to be a _daddy_!"

Amy loved to get the best of her husband and this was one of the best of those times. Ty looked like he had just caught a hard right hook to the chin and was trying unsuccessfully to get his brain reconnected again with the rest of his body. She stood there waiting for a response, any response, and after what seemed like minutes, finally asked, "Ty? Are you OK?"

The plug went back in its socket and his brain came to life telling him what he thought he had heard, _was real_! "A…, daddy, like with a _baby_? We're having _a baby_?"

"_Yes! We are!" _Amy bounced off the tips of her toes as she waited for him to get all of the new information processed.

Ty grabbed the mother of his baby under her arms, picking her up as easily as if she were Katie's size and held her above his eye level. Amy wrapped her legs around his waist and threw her arms around her husband's neck, squeezing him tightly while he spun her around for the second go round, then he brought her effortlessly back down to the floor.

Amy found the emerald green eyes that made her feel the way no one else ever could and took the hand of Hudson's newest father, led him to the loft door where she leaned him against the opening, and stood on her tiptoes to give him a warm and getting warmer kiss to seal the moment. This would be the one they would always remember, the day they both knew they were going to be parents for the first time.

Amy laid her hand softly on the side of Ty's face and began to smile out loud again as she told him, "We have finally made it, you and me! We have each other, a whole lot of people who love us, we have this fantastic life together, and now, we have our own family, a son, or daughter, on the way! I just can't believe how happy I am!"

"We have certainly taken the long way around to get ourselves here, like this, but now that we _are_ here, I wouldn't trade the journey we have taken…, for anything!"

Amy nodded in agreement and said, "The long way around? I see what you mean….It _has_ been quite the journey, the two of us growing up here and getting to where we are right now. I guess we have some good news to share with our family, so we had better get to it, don't you think?" she suggested, and then pulled the love of her life down to her lips for a long, slow, tender kiss, just because it felt like the right thing to do. "On second thought," she smiled at her husband with the mischievous sparkling blue eyes that never failed to get his attention, "it can wait just a little while longer, _don't you think_?"


End file.
